FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 20, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 23
Jackson Heights community members call
for an end to police violence in Colombia
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Hundreds of protesters marched from
93rd Street down 34th Avenue to Travers
Park in Jackson Heights on May 7, demanding
an end to the ongoing police violence in
Colombia.
For over a week now, thousands of
Colombians have taken to the streets to
express their anger over the country’s current
government, led by President Iván
Duque Márquez.
Th e protests, which began on April 28,
were triggered by a proposed tax reform
that would have hit an already struggling
low and middle class. Nearly 43 percent of
Colombians live in poverty, and the reported
unemployment rate is currently at 16
percent.
Aft er four days of nationwide demonstrations
organized by labor unions, Duque
withdrew the controversial bill.
However, Colombians have continued
taking to the streets nationwide, demanding
improved working conditions, pension
reform, protection for human rights activists
and the full implementation of the 2016
peace agreement between the government
and guerrilla group Farc.
But the protests have taken a violent turn.
According to the latest report by Temblores,
a nonprofi t organization, 39 people have
died, and 1,814 have been injured in violent
clashes with heavily armed police forces.
More than 80 people have been reported
missing, according to reports.
New Yorkers with Colombian roots are
gravely concerned about the latest developments
and fear for their families and friends
in Colombia.
Community members, some wrapped in
the Colombian fl ag, arrived in Travers Park,
chanting “New York, Colombia needs your
help” and “Uribe is a killer,” referring to the
former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe
Velez, who was in power from 2002 to 2010.
During his tenure, the military killed thousands
of civilians claiming they were guerrilla
fi ghters.
Th e march and rally was organized by
youth leaders in the community, including
Tatiana Hurtado, Melissa Garcia Velez,
Julius Gomez and Kaleidospace, a Jackson
Heights-based arts collective.
“We support this march and others like
it because we want to send out a message
to the Colombian government and to the
American government, letting them know
that when the police murder our Black
and brown communities, we stand up and
fi ght back,” said Manuela Agudelo, artist
and founder of Kaleidospace. “Th e love
and protection to our communities is number
one and we will always champion love
over hate.”
Agudelo also emphasized that they were
raising awareness of fundraising eff orts of
those on the front lines in Colombia.
Protesters lit candles remembering the
victims who died and whose names were
written on white wood, while others placed
banners they had carried along the march
route and an oversized Colombian fl ag on
the ground.
Hurtado, one of the organizers of the
march, said every artistic presentation at
the event, which
included traditional
dance
and songs of
Colombia as
well as spoken
word,
paid homage
to the killings
at the hands of the state as
well as those who are missing.
Hurtado said they’re
urging the government
there to “do its job” and
hear their demands for
“justice for all without
exception.”
“We advocate for peace, for a quality
and public educational system, for a decent
health system, for better job opportunities,
gender equity, for the strengthening of the
agricultural economy, for the dignity of our
working and indigenous people, for respect
for the Afro community, among other
things that are essential for the country to
truly progress,” Hurtado said. “Otherwise,
this would only be the beginning of the
social outbreak,
the discontent
will not pass
if none of the
above changes.”
Listening to a
slew of speakers
and
musicians,
Miguel, who
immigrated
to the United
States with his
parents at the
age of 4, shared
that he was worried
about his grandparents, uncles and
nephews who still live in Colombia.
“I talked to them and asked them, ‘How is
everything?’ Th ey’re telling me that it is sad
because they see people that they know are
dying. Like people that they are associated
themselves with are dying because they protested
for something diff erent,” Miguel said.
Camilo said that people are fearful
because the government is supposed to
protect them, and the police are against
them. He reported that a friend from Cali,
which has seen the most violent clashes
with police, told him that they couldn’t sleep
because of the gunshots and the ambulance
sirens.
He shared that
people are outraged
because the government
doesn’t respect
them.
“What do you
have to lose? Th at’s
why you have a
bunch of young
kids fi ghting in the
fi rst lines of the
protests because
they know there
has to be a change,”
Camillo said.
He also lamented the
lack of reporting about the
unrest and that it took the May 6 gathering
in Times Square to draw attention
to the grave situation in Colombia.
Several local elected offi cials attended
the protest, including state Senator
Jessica Ramos, who is of Colombian
descent, Assembly members Jessica
González-Rojas and Catalina
Cruz, who was born in Colombia, and
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez.
“Th e history of oppression and use
of force by the government against
Colombians goes back decades,” Cruz wrote
in a tweet. “Th e right to protest against
unjust policies should never cost you your
life.”
Jackson Heights Assemblywoman Jessica
González-Rojas said the events in Colombia
were terrible.
“I mean, it’s the working class that has
been targeted,” González-Rojas said.
“Th ere’s been murders and thousands of
people harmed by the police. Th is is just not
OK. It’s unacceptable.”
In a statement last week, Ocasio-Cortez
condemned the police violence Colombian
protesters have endured.
“We stand with our Colombian brothers
and sisters, in NY-14 and abroad, against
the state killings of protestors,” Ocasio-
Cortez said. “All people should have a fundamental
right to demonstrate against their
elected leaders. Th ese citizens were protesting
against anti-working class reforms and,
for that, they lost their lives. Th ere must be
accountability for the long string of human
rights abuses exercised by the Colombian
government.”
Additional reporting by Angélica Acevedo.
Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
Jackson Heights community members protested the ongoing
unrests in Colombia on May 7. Sign reads “It hurts me to see those
killed in my country.”
Activists protested the
ongoing unrests in
Colombia
Sign reads, “One who
doesn’t love their homeland
doesn’t love their
mother. Cali, resist.”
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