Colombian Vice-President Marta Lucía Ramírez said in an interview with CBSN that the government had “appropriately” communicated a tax proposal that had provoked fatal protests in the country.
“This particular reform aimed at the option of higher incomes for very poor families, but the law was not communicated properly,” Ramirez said Friday.
“[The protesters] seized this opportunity for the government,” he said.
Tax reform was designed to compensate for the country’s economic crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and to help social services, as well as to raise taxes on some indispensable goods and wages, which infuriated protesters throughout Latin America.
Colombian President Ivan Duque has withdrawn the proposed tax plan for now, but protests against the government, now in its third week, have largely focused on addressing a variety of problems, adding access to education, employment, poverty, inequality and police brutality. . Duque met with state leaders to discuss previous protests this week, adding a small stopover in the town of Cali, which was thought to be the epicentre of the protests.
The country’s Ombudsman said at least 42 other people were killed in protests that began on April 28. The protests were generally peaceful, however, the human rights organization Tremors reported that 39 other people were killed through the police. There were also more than 2,100 cases of police brutality and 16 incidents of sexual assault by officers, according to Tremors.
The Spectador, a Colombian media outlet, reported that a minor committed suicide after accusing police officers of sexually assaulting her in the city of Popayán. The local mayor’s workplace aired on a Thursday saying they were investigating the “serious charges. “
In her interview with CBSN, Ramirez defended police actions, which were described as exaggerated through activists and convicted through foreign organizations, however, she presses that the government has a “zero tolerance” policy and will not allow abuse or violations. human rights through agents. Ramirez said the deaths in the protests were under investigation and that at least three policemen had been imprisoned.
“If there is violence committed through a police [officer], we will have to act,” he said. “Not only as a government, but also as a state. “
The deployment of the vaccine in Colombia is a source of fear, as cases of COVID-19 increase.
“We have economic difficulties, we have tensions of fitness because COVID-19 [cases] have increased in the last two weeks,” said Ramirez, who said mass protests have led to an increase because other people are not dressed in masks. .
According to the World Health Organization, as of 7 May, only 5. 9 million doses of vaccines were given to more than 50 million other people in the country. The government aims to vaccinate 70% of Colombia’s population until November, according to Ramirez. “depends on the pharmaceutical chain of origin. “
“This is the one in many countries around the world,” he said.