Colombians Rally Against Duque’s Tax Reform

Colombians took to the streets again this Tuesday to protest against the policies of Ivan Duque’s government and to demand that laws be speeded up in Parliament, in a national demonstration called by the National Commission on Unemployment (CNP).

through a release, CNP reported that mobilization for “Denouncing corruption and the impunity that accompanies it.”and the “new Duque package” and the fact that the president “neither negotiates nor talks.”

Specifically, the organizers are demanding that the Colombian Congress process the 10 bills presented by the CNP, through the opposition benches, and collect the “most important petitions” for which Colombians mobilized in the November demonstrations. 2019 and those that started in April. 28 posts.

According to CNP, these introduced laws “are only intended to benefit the millions of citizens who have not found a way out for their basic needs, after being harassed by the economic crisis, coronavirus and government policies.” However, they deplored that the ruling party in Congress would block them.

[Declaración del Comité Nacional de Paro]

In the streets we will demand, from the Congress of the Republic, that bills be processed.

We will also come out to denounce corruption and the impunity that accompanies it, the new Dokie package, tax reform.https://t.co/SJgaBDeN60

Central unionism of workers (cutcolombia) September 23, 2021

With the submitted projects, CNP strives to:

1. a basic income Emergency monthly minimum wage for one year for 7.5 million families.
2. Global reward for each student in general higher education to make the logging an effective zero.
3. Strengthening public health network Dignity and formalization of work in response to the pandemic.
4. Support the economic revitalization of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MiPymes) and job creation.
5. Supports activation agricultural sector.
6. Cancellation of Decree 1174 of 2020 regarding the social protection floor.
7. Strengthening, prevention and training procedures to combat Gender-based violence.
8. Guarantees for the exercise of the right to peaceful demonstration.
9. fix for youth law (Law 1622 of 2013), to make it more effective and encourage the political participation of young people.
10. Police reform.

They also request that bill 073 for health continue to be processed.

There will be a large police presence on the streets during the protest day. As National Police Director General Jorge Luis Vargas emphasized, some 40 thousand soldiers, men and women, to guard the march, Radio Blue.

Likewise, there will be vehicles and uniformed personnel of the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squad (ESMAD) in operations. Asmad was one of the heroes of police violence during the protests that began in April of this year and lasted for four months.

Against tax reform

Protesters also spoke out against tax reform recently passed in Congress and accept it by Doki.

The approved tax reform was the third text sent by the Executive, after the population rejected two similar projects. The earlier presentation was the cause of the outbreak of social disease that has occurred in Colombia since last April 28, which has left 80 cases deceasedAccording to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz); And more than 4,000 cases of violence by the police, according to registration From the NGO Tremors.

Regulations, as baptized as Social Investment LawThe president called it “the most important reform of the twenty-first century” and said it came as a “consensus result” among entrepreneurs, youth, social program beneficiaries, and members of Congress.

Among other things, the law stipulates that the state program “Income Solidarity” amounts to 4.1 million families, which will receive a basic income of 160,000 pesos per month (about $ 42); that more than 500,000 Colombians, between the ages of 18 and 28, have an employment contract with social benefits and that the state contributes 25% of the minimum wage; A similar program will benefit 216,000 women, which will create another 265,000 job opportunities; and that about 700,000 young people from classes 1, 2 and 3 (who have the least resources) receive free postgraduate education.

However, from the CNP they criticized that the Duque management had the regulations approved “with a clean desk”. “The government intends to educate the public that basic income and non-registration are resolved through tax reform. Nothing is more false. There is talk of universal zero registration, but the resources that could cover it have not been allocated,” the statement read.

Likewise, they noted that “the basic income that the government is talking about is nothing more than an insufficient increase in the so-called solidarity income,” denouncing that the Duque administration “refuses to offer solutions” to the serious problems it faces. The faces of the population who witnessed the violation of their “economic and social rights”.

There is another complaint from the CNP regarding The nation’s new general budgetIt was approved in Parliament. According to the organization, these forecasts increase the repayment of external and internal debt by 10%, while reducing financing for the agricultural sector and intends to freeze state expenditures for a period of ten years.