2019, moving into 2020: the era that we now look back on with a trace of nostalgia. This was mere months before Covid-19 shut the world down – before many of us realized how much life can change literally overnight. Beginning in November of 2019 and spilling into the early weeks of 2020, Colombia experienced widespread political protests. Some were peaceful, some turned violent, some ended fatally. My friend Erick, born and raised in Colombia, played a small role in these demonstrations and was willing to share a local perspective on his country’s politics with me.

For decades, Colombians endured abuse from their government. Daily life could feel unsafe, even something as routine as a grocery run. Police brutality and corruption was expected. Tax cuts were for only the wealthy. The quality of work, education, and life had drastically deteriorated. Everyone in Colombia, especially Gen Z, saw the trend in ultra right-wing presidents and political leaders securing government positions election after election. “Historically, every left wing candidate since the ‘70s would end up dead before election day,” Erick told me.

In 2019, Erick was a university student pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Education. He says that the protests initially began with students demanding better and cheaper education. Students have protested in the past by simply cutting class – a majority of higher education schools in Colombia are government-funded, so it’s important that the schools maintain good numbers. Usually, according to Erick, they’ll skip class for a few weeks while announcing their demands, and when the government didn’t listen they’d quietly start showing up again, defeated. 

But this time was different. A new wave. The students left class to swarm the streets, demanding a better life for themselves, for those they love. Taxi drivers joined them. Then the small businesses, the labor unions. The people who were receiving no source of retirement aid. The young men who didn’t want to be taken off the street and forced into military service. The families searching for their missing sons. 

Erick explained to me that the civilians blocked the streets, halting commerce, boycotting unnecessary spending. Barely anyone was working, or in school. The protesters were demanding the government officials open a dialogue with them, otherwise they would continue the upheaval. Our pensions are being cut. There is no democratic policy. We don’t get paid enough. Our schools aren’t good enough. Indigenous people are being murdered. Rural activists are being murdered. The cartel is rampant, and our children are being murdered. The police hurt us. They are forcing our boys into the military – to be one of them. Duque, it needs to change.

Instead of negotiating, Ivan Duque – Colombian President since 2018 who held only a 26% approval rating at the time – deployed the military against the mostly peaceful crowds. Violence escalated. Spotting tanks cruising down the local neighborhood streets became normal. In response, the most devoted of protesters – mostly university students, of which Erick was one – began training against military force. Taking air-gun hits, preparing for open tear gas canisters thrown at them by anti-riot police and soldiers.

Beatings, threats, unlawful arrests of journalists. Killings. Dilan Cruz, a 17 year old, was shot in the head by an anti-riot police member with a “bean-bag round” from a 12-gauge shotgun. He passed away from the head trauma he sustained. Several cases have since been documented of brutally beating demonstrators and bystanders, including a 24 year old man who was passing by on his way home but wasn’t a protester. Due to the merciless nature of the military and police against protesters, Erick’s older brother begged him not to train and occupy the front lines like many of the other university students. Erick obliged, but still continued to protest and made his stance clear.

The national strike worked, to an extent. In 2022, Gustavo Petro was elected the new President of Colombia. He is credited as being Colombia’s first openly “progressive” head of state. Petro vowed that he would instate policies that would fundamentally change the structural issues the nation had been facing for decades, aiding in better quality of life, more equal income distribution, and safer streets. Opposition politicians are still blocking some of Petro’s reforms, specifically for labor rights and better healthcare. Regardless, he has had some success that made his supporters hopeful that he will stay true to his word amidst the obvious corruption. He’s passed a groundbreaking tax reform, as well as negotiated and addressed peace treaties with Colombia’s illegal armed groups and guerillas.

Erick explained to me that there is a belief among Petro’s supporters that the new administration is finally bringing to light the long-standing allegations that the previous Colombian government colluded with major cartels. They were sustaining a system where young men were lured with the promise of government employment, only to be killed and later disguised as guerrilla or cartel fighters in order to shift blame and rally public backing for the state’s supposed conflict with Colombia’s cartels. The institutions that claimed to be combating the cartels were actually intertwined with them, and Petro is working to expose this deception. 

Since Petro’s inauguration, the discovery of mass graves across Colombia has shocked locals and the media. Some argue that these newly uncovered remains – often illegally snuck into cemeteries – point to ties between the state and criminal networks. Currently, over 100,000 people are registered as missing or “disappeared” in Colombia, and hundreds of unidentified, decomposing bodies sealed in black bags are being discovered. Human rights activists are contending that a large portion of these bodies belong to those that the government claimed to have killed in defense against the cartels and guerrilla groups, meanwhile innocent civilians were being slaughtered by their own country’s forces. This is known as the “false positives” scandal. 

Petro still has a long way to go in rectifying the government’s previous actions, gaining trust from the people, and following through on his promises. Some groups, including Erick, continue to wholeheartedly support Petro’s mission. Others think he’s too idealistic, striving for an impossibly utopian society. He faces the immense challenges that come with a polarized Congress and a difficult political environment. But the young generation that trained against a military and fought hard for a better future are hopeful that this is at least a step in the right direction, a peaceful and safe direction. They risked their lives fighting a government that was supposed to protect them, believing that the future generations should never have to do the same.

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