Helicopters whir overhead, there are riot police positioned in front of banks, supermarkets, businesses both public and private and yet the stream of university students continues without ebb into Bogota’s downtown area towards the Plaza de Bolivar and seat of the Colombian Government
Rogue violent elements, their faces obscured, from the ever present cameras, spray-paint anti-government slogans onto buildings and launch paint bombs which explode upon the walls of the Law Courts and the headquarters of Telmex amongst other buildings targeted.
Throughout Colombia the same scenes are unfolding in the major cities of Medellin and Cali in addition to others. The national newspaper El Tiempo posted a tweet in the early hours of the morning asking for the demonstrations to be organized and peaceful with no need for wanton damage to property. This has been ignored. And the images that accompanied the last demonstration on October 11 are being replayed as if on a skipped disc.
What Are the Students Protesting?
Only last Wednesday November 2, President Juan Manuel Santos and his Minister for Education Maria Fernanda Campo passed a new decree for the reform of an education statute known as the Ley 30 (Law 30 created in 1992).
This reform has proven incredibly unpopular with students and educators in some sectors, most significantly in the Public Education system as it is this area that is set to be affected most.
What Are the Reforms?
- Private enterprises may invest into public universities. The protesters claim that public universities will stray from their mission to educate once this happens while the Government says that private investment will keep these universities competitive.
- Proposed increases to university funding are not sufficient. The Government has earmarked an increase of 1 per cent for 2012, 2 per cent for 2013 and 3 per cent for the period beyond. Public universities say that this is too little.
- This will turn non-profit universities in to profit making entities. Many of the protesters are worried that their education is being treated as a commodity.
- Universities will lose their autonomy. Students and teachers demonstrating feeling that their institutes will become another pawn belonging to either the government or business.
Will President Santos Withdraw the Reforms?
With most public universities about Colombia on strike since October 12 and demonstrations bringing parts of cities to a standstill it is looking increasingly possible that the reforms may well be withdrawn. Although, the President has stated that no policy will be changed until a dialogue is opened, students return to their classrooms and the changes are approved by Congress.
Richard McColl - I am a freelance writer from deepest darkest London but for the past 10 years or so I have been maintaining my extended "writing break" in ...
