00:00Regulating social protest without forgetting the lessons of the past.
00:05The regulation of social protest proposed by the government of Abelardo de la Espriella
00:09part of a real concern that Colombians have expressed.
00:13On many occasions, when violent individuals hijack popular demonstrations
00:18and they take advantage of the situation to cause damage, costs, and frustration to the rest of the citizens,
00:23including those who marched peacefully, it is palpable.
00:28We always end up talking more about the violence than about the causes being championed in the streets.
00:35In that context, the initiative of the Ministry of the Interior is welcome.
00:39However, we must be careful not to fall into the well-known traps.
00:44The toll of police abuses left by the social unrest during Iván Duque's administration
00:49It is a bitter reminder of the importance of taking care of protesters.
00:56The Espriella government proposed modifying Decree 003 of 2021, which regulates social protest.
01:05According to Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara, and I quote,
01:09This decree seeks to balance the rights of those who protest with those who do not participate.
01:15Not one less right for those who march, nor one more space for those who destroy.
01:20Traffic jams are not violence.
01:22Discomfort is not violence.
01:24Assaulting, carrying weapons, detaining people or preventing an ambulance, yes, I'll close the quotation marks.
01:31Essentially, the aim is to allow the authorities to intervene when crimes are being committed.
01:39To that end, the text proposes, for example, that, and I quote,
01:44The National Police will have a security detail accompanying the public demonstration.
01:49which must be located at a minimum distance of four meters.
01:53The purpose of this device is to guarantee the peaceful exercise of the right to protest
02:00and to protect both the participants and the people who are not part of the demonstration, I close quotation marks.
02:06Elsewhere, the project states that, and I quote again,
02:10In the face of acts of violence, the obligation to prioritize dialogue and mediation
02:15It constitutes a rule of preference for means of intervention with respect to the demonstration as a whole
02:21and not a prerequisite that conditions, suspends or postpones intervention actions
02:28directed individually against those who carry out acts of violence and I close quotation marks.
02:35It's difficult to be against the overall purpose of the project,
02:39But the specifics do raise questions in a debate that is much more complex.
02:45which makes it seem like the minister's statements.
02:48Yes, we support the prosecution of crimes, and that violence can lead to interventions.
02:55and that peaceful demonstrations are not co-opted by actors with a desire to destroy public property.
03:03Up to that point, there is no further discussion.
03:07We need the protests to be carried out respecting the constitutional rights of all citizens.
03:13In Perón, the regulation opens a field of discretion for the public force on the ground.
03:20whoever decides that the conditions are right to skip the dialogue and take action.
03:26This is where the immediate past becomes relevant.
03:31We did not come to this debate in a vacuum.
03:34During the Duke administration, Dylan Cruz was killed by a police officer.
03:39that he was committing an act of abuse of authority.
03:43He wasn't the only one.
03:44In the protests of 2020 and 2021,
03:48There were dozens of cases of arbitrary arrests that were later questioned by judges of the Republic,
03:55as well as acts of violence against people who were demonstrating.
03:59As shown in a photographic record we made in El Espectador,
04:03The loss of eyes was one of the tragedies reported during those days.
04:08Therefore, the emphasis of the regulation should be on giving discretionary power to the public force.
04:17and not in protecting the protesters,
04:20It is a political decision that could open the door to similar abuses being repeated.
04:27Again, this is not about being complicit with those who commit crimes during protests,
04:33but it is important to recognize that the reality of these spaces demands extremely careful consideration by the State.
04:42If you agree with this editorial, send your 500-word counter-editorial to elespectadoropinion.com.
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