The measure allows security forces to break up demonstrations without prior dialogue.

On Tuesday, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella signed Decree 1525, a measure that facilitates police repression by broadening the definition of “violence” during popular protests.

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Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara warned that the new regulation will take effect before demonstrations called by social movements, organizations, and opposition parties for Oct. 14.

De La Espriella’s decree authorizes security forces to disperse demonstrations without prior dialogue, using tear gas, stun grenades, and other weapons classified as “less-lethal.”

The decree also prohibits road blockades and the presence of masked protesters at demonstrations, a measure that moves toward criminalizing social protest and violates the free exercise of the right to protest.

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The new regulation states that dialogue with demonstrators is not “a prerequisite that conditions, suspends or postpones intervention actions directed individually against those who commit acts of violence.”

Indigenous, labor, educational and territorial organizations are preparing a day of mobilization for Wednesday, which will serve as an initial test of the level of opposition to far-right President De La Espriella, who has been in power for just over two months.

On Tuesday, he said that peaceful protest is a “constitutional guarantee,” but that this right “does not authorize attacking other citizens, destroying property, threatening workers, or preventing access for ambulances and emergency services.”

“In the face of acts that constitute crimes, authorities will act in accordance with the law,” De La Espriella said, referring to the protest scheduled for Wednesday.

“Never again a permanent blockade of a highway. Never again a urban bus lane turned into a trench. Attacking a person, throwing objects to injure someone, detaining someone, or using a child in a protest is not protest; it is a crime and will be treated as such,” he threatened.

teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE

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