Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Anti war activity in Bogota Colombia

el acrata | 24.03.2003 10:04

Information taken from reports on Colombia indymedia of the latest protests in Bogota against the war in Iraq

Taken from reports which appeared first in full on  http://colombia.indymedia.org/ and written by “burromoro” and “el asistente” respectively.

“On Thursday 20 March 150 Ecopetrol workers accompanied by union leaders from the CUT and a number of activists held a protest outside the Ecopetrol offices in Bogota. They sang and chanted against the Uribe Velez government’s support for the war in Iraq, against US intervention and for peace in our country, and also against Chevron-Texaco taking the gas in the Guajira region of Colombia. US flags were burnt and the traffic held up for a while, before the workers returned to work.” (El asistente)

“On Friday the 21st of March there was a march against the bloody genocide in Iraq. Groups like the PST (1), Banderas Negras (2), students, workers and many more who support the right to life gathered in Catastro at 11 a.m. and marched towards the U.S. embassy, displaying our anti war messages and carrying out civil disobedience to open peoples eyes as to what is going on. Earlier on North Americans against the war, local Christian pacifists and a theatre group had all arrived outside the embassy, bringing the total present up to about 200.
We moved slowly in order to tie up the traffic on Calle 26, whistling and applauding as more people joined the march. Squads of riot police were there (SMAD and others) as always, prepared for anything, not realizing it was a peaceful march. Having said that, we were hoping to occupy the pedestrian bridge outside the embassy when we got there, but the robocops prevented us. Onlookers in their apartments or from passing cars raised their arms or beeped in support.
Arriving at Carrera 50 we took up the area behind the embassy, blocking the road so that the traffic would pile up and people would notice us. And three hours after the march had begun we were back on Calle 26 where we blocked the road again for some minutes in order for a little ceremony to round things off for the day. Some people had brought a 6x4 metre large American flag made from newspaper which we poured petrol over. Before burning it a student spoke to those present saying: For some this flag means liberty and democracy but for others bloodshed, fear and destruction. We’re going to burn it so they know we don’t want them in Iraq, or here, or anywhere else in the world.
For 20 seconds people spitted on, trampled on and kicked the flag as it burned. We then dispersed, concerned that one of the riot squads might be round the corner waiting to detain someone, but everyone stuck together in their groups.
In conclusion, more and more people are attending these anti war demos (see Colombia and UK indymedia for reports of others held before and after these), if we can call them that. But we need more people. We’re beginning to make our presence felt - I noticed that everyone near the march waved their hands or showed in some other way that they too were against the war, and that is the main purpose of these marches.” (Burromoro)
Translators notes:
1. PST is I think a Trotskyist group.
2. Banderas Negras is the anarchist Black Flags coordinator comprising different collectives in the city. See  http://geocities.com/coordinadorabanderasnegras

el acrata

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech