Photo: Sebastián demonstrating in Santa Marta the 5th of May 2021.
Until now, the city of Santa Marta had remained behind the Paro Nacional. And yet, behind the walls of universities and associations, the revolution is being organized. On June 5, it is the first time that the city accepts that the associative groups gather in the parque de los Novios in the city center. The atmosphere is there, open stage, music, reading of articles of law, poems, sale of cakes, cocktails. The Colombian people, hand in hand, chanting the same slogans, fighting for the same convictions. This is the essence of Paro Nacional.
My name is Sebastián Ronaldo Riátiga Barroso, I am 22 years old, I live in Santa Marta. I am studying business administration at the University of Magdalena. I am a leader of the student movement, political activist, defender of truth, of the environment, of human rights and above all of life.
To fully understand the situation in Colombia, we must remember what the history of this country is: we are a nation where a feudal system has been managed in the same way since the years of the Spanish conquest. A system in which a few families and landowners divide power and territory as they see fit. Corruption has thus been installed with state support to make anything that is not appear legal. A cynicism and a corruption which denigrates the people. We have lived more than 200 years of war, since the independence obtained by Simon Bolivar. This generated the creation of rural and urban guerrillas in response to the political and social rebellion of peasants, workers, students and others in Colombian civil society. The snowball effect then generated the creation of a counterposition of armed groups outside the law but with the collaboration of the state called paramilitarism.
Photo: Sebastián, Santa Marta, 5th May 2021.
To feel the latent violence in Colombia, it is enough to live a few months here.
My experience makes me someone who concentrates all the discomforts of Colombian society, especially that of the youth who take to the streets to talk about dignity. The current concerns relate to the reduction of the corruption which does so much harm to Colombia, a very poor and deficient justice, the fact that 42.5% of the Colombian population cannot eat even two meals a day. The health system is also inefficient.
We do not often go to health facilities for fear of leaving in a worse state than the one in which we arrived. You can spend many years of your life getting into debt to get a quality higher education, and despite that, you don't have the guarantees of getting out of it and finding work, you end up unemployed. We are also afraid of walking in this beautiful country, afraid of disappearing, of being kidnapped and, in the worst case, of being murdered.
About 78% of the population is suspicious of the police. Yet it is in her that we should trust, she who represents authority, legitimacy. It is, in fact, the complete opposite. Colombians do not believe in this corrupt, human rights violator, ineffective, apathetic, and murderous police system. It is not the fault of the officers themselves, many of them want to do a good job. It is the responsibility of the directorates and high commands that are responsible for implementing an abusive and domineering policy, they are accomplices of Colombian elites or oligarch families. They are responsible for keeping these legal state apparatuses on the right track in order to continue to exert pressure without anyone saying anything to them. When that doesn't work, they use external and illegal agents. Often these paramilitary groups, the police and the national army work together, accomplices and responsible for crimes against humanity.
To feel the latent violence in Colombia, it is enough to live a few months here, there is an atmosphere of consternation, of expectation. Here it is a miracle to live every day because you do not know when you can die, you cannot go out on the streets in safety because the armed groups have declared your locality as a war zone with so-called invisible borders. This insecurity is worse in rural areas because the state has never arrived in these war-stricken, neglected territories. He who makes the law does so with a gun or a gun in his hand.
Photo: Steven LE ROCH, Plaza de los Novios in Santa Marta, 5th June 2021.
What I want for the future of Colombia is in one word: HOPE.
Here the slogans and popular slogans are clear: EL PUEBLO SE CANSÓ! The people are tired. ! He is tired of everything I just mentioned. We cannot stand one more day what is happening, we cannot continue to be indifferent and look away while we are responsible for those who come after us. We are the generation that is not afraid, the worthy and rebellious generation that is ready to go all the way, risking our own lives, to put an end to this corrupt system. We are the generation that will rebuild a nation and transform it so that in the future it does not happen again.
What I want for Colombia's future can be summed up in one word: HOPE, the one I have every day to wake up in a new country, hope to improve all these systems such as education, health, justice, police, and all other corrupt systems. I hope for the future of my country that the next generations will not have to suffer all that we are going through but that they will have the right to a humane, multicultural country, respectful of the environment, of human rights. and especially of life.
I would like to say a big thank you to this network where we can express our opinion and expose to the entire international community what is happening in Colombia, a beautiful country that I invite you to visit in the near future.
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