In light of the new Free Trade Agreement signed by U.S. President Barack Obama that opens up Colombia to the influx of U.S. capital and to the influence of the economy and military, Colombia has begun privatizing services in recent years. Taking initiative from the U.S. private education model in 2011, Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos and the education minister pushed to incorporate a reform to the Education Law 30 that eliminates public universities. While Public schools are primarily free and reinvest every peso they do receive to the school, private institutions have investors that receive profits and impose high tuition fees on students. Sarah Yaneth Fernandez, professor for the university of Antioquia expresses concerns representative of a wide range of teachers claiming that “while public education has a social interest. Private organizations have personal profit interests.”
Students articulated this reform would make education unaffordable to the masses. They speculated poor students who did take out loans would not be able to pay them back due to the devastated Colombian economy. Additionally, students worried that with this shift the government would begin prioritizing the math and sciences while defunding the humanities. In response to the legislation students demanded “Immediate withdrawal of the proposed law, giving guarantees for the drafting of an alternative proposal together with all sections of the universities, and guarantees for the exercising of democratic freedoms, which implies the demilitarization of the university campuses.” In response to this reform, to resist privatization of education and imposition of tuition fees there were strikes in Antioquia, Cartagena, Baranquilla, and Cacua Valley. In Sucre students occupied University buildings with tents and makeshift kitchens and held die-ins and night marches to block major highways. In Bogota students staged a massive protest that created sufficient chaos to shut down the transport system “Transmilenio.” Across the country 35 universities were shut down for five weeks, and protest graffiti splayed across city walls. Some of their most creative tactics included hug-a-thons where students hugged police officers to contrast violent confrontations, kiss-a-thons where students blocked traffic while kissing and embracing one another, flash-mobs in public consumer spaces, and placement of open bottles of canelazos (A beverage traditionally drunken around a fire to bring friends together to share stories in order to incite community dialogue).
The government justified police brutality against student protestors and dehumanized victims by claiming the protests were infiltrated by drug gang lords who did not actually represent the desires of the people. With newly funded weaponry from the United States, immense violence was inflicted upon students. However, students countered this by setting up a system of checks and balances within their protests where as soon as a threat was posed against police a brigade of students would line up to protect them. They also painted police officers shields to engage in non-violent confrontation. Additionally, they gained widespread support from the Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE), the United Workers Central of Colombia (CUT), and the students of the private universities, organized in the FEU-UNIVERSIDADES PRIVADAS. Student leaders continuously turned down offers to meet with the minister of education exclaiming they would not begin dialogue until the law was rescinded. Finally, they set an ultimatum date of November 10th by which the government would have to rescind the law or face closure via massive blockage by a united worker/student/ professor front of all major highways. This posed a real threat, as the coordination of protests via social media became a successful tool for calling on the masses. Their movement was successful and as reported by the National Alternative Education Board: “there were three conditions – first, that this reform package was withdrawn; second, that the government showed a willingness to build a new reform package, and lastly that there were guarantees regarding finishing the semester. All this [was] accepted by the government.” Further Resources:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-students-win-their-battle-education-reform-thrown-out/ |
AuthorJulia Pearlstein-Levy |
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