The death of Lucas Villa, a peaceful protester from Pereira, shot dead by unknown persons and turned into one of the symbols of the protest, has clouded a panorama that was already complicated for the Colombian government.. Although the criminals could belong to the mafia, according to one of the Prosecutor's hypotheses, and Iván Duque came out this Tuesday morning to condemn what happened and repeat the everlasting phrase “the full weight of the law will fall on the guilty” , the tension continues to be red hot, especially in Cali, the epicenter of the most violent revolts.

Nor did the lack of progress in the meeting held on Monday between the President and the National Strike Committee at Casa Nariño help to calm things down.. The delegates of the big unions, as well as the representatives of different social movements, argued that there was no rapprochement because they did not feel “empathy” from the President towards their concerns.

But hours later, at the stroke of midnight, the Peace Commissioner, Miguel Ceballos, announced that the government accepted one of the first conditions imposed by the Committee. Instead of just “dialogue”, as the Executive proposed, they will “negotiate” the list of claims. This step, however, has not been enough to prevent the call for new mobilizations throughout the country for tomorrow, Wednesday.

He also failed to convince them to erect the barricades on the highways, which have suffocated the economy of a large part of Colombia.. But they will establish humanitarian corridors in some in order to allow the passage of food and medical supplies. In others, those who set themselves up as roadblock chiefs impose their own rules, such as accepting that farmers transit and sell their own products as long as they do not have intermediaries or supermarkets as their destination.

Convincing the main interlocutors of the strikes is not Duque's only challenge. In Bucaramanga, students from two public universities, leaders of the demonstrations in the capital of the northern department of Santander, declared that they need separate tables, that the aforementioned Committee does not represent them.

And in the adjacent department of Norte de Santander, where the ELN and the FARC are very strong, thousands of farmers, largely coca growers, have begun to gather to interrupt the trunk lines and march towards their capital, Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela.. These types of demonstrations are more complex to confront because unions linked to the guerrillas intervene and force the inhabitants to participate for as long as it suits them.

The same occurs in Cauca, bordering the Valle del Cauca. The FARC have forced the peasants to move towards Cali, although the intervention of the Army and the National Police have blocked their way in some points. They have also managed to remove seventeen blockades, installed within the city, to try to get something back to normal. General Fernando Murillo, director of the DIJIN (police intelligence) reported that except in the Meléndez neighborhood, which has been very conflictive from the beginning, they managed to clear the streets through dialogue.

Collapse in hospitals

“In 13 days of protests, terrorists infiltrated marches have left 849 police officers injured,” Defense Minister Diego Molano wrote on Twitter, referring to the entire country.. It added a long list of damages: 1,362 blocks; 1,052 vehicles and 156 public transport stations vandalized, the same fate suffered by 421 bank branches, 87 gas stations and 305 commercial establishments, among others.

In Bogotá, for its part, where the mayor Claudia López expressed her discouragement for not being able to avoid the crowds at the third peak of the pandemic, there were riots early in the morning.. This, together with the damage to public transport in days gone by, causes long lines to board the buses.. To this daily martyrdom of the capital, is added the fact of paying almost double for various products of the family basket due to the scarcity caused by roadblocks.

“The conjunction of high mobilization and high contagion has us on the verge of hospital collapse,” said López, at a time when the public seems to forget that since the strike began, the number of deaths from Covid exceeds 400 in Colombia. “It is the first time that we have reached 96% ICU occupancy. No matter how many beds we put, the occupation continues to grow”.