The lawsuit, case number 1:25-cv-05257, claims that the plaintiff was in Colombia attending an event and booked an Uber ride to return to her hotel. According to the filing, after confirming she was in the correct vehicle, the driver began traveling in the incorrect direction. Despite her pleas, the driver allegedly took her to an isolated area where she was forcefully restrained and assaulted.

The complaint alleges that Uber (NYSE: UBER) was negligent in its driver screening process, disregarded prior passenger complaints, and neglected to implement fundamental safety protocols, particularly in international locations where the risks for users may be higher. The lawsuit accuses the company of prioritizing profits over passenger safety.

The case shares similarities with a broader, consolidated legal action against Uber, a multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 3084) currently underway in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Presided over by Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer, this MDL, formally known as In re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, consolidates numerous lawsuits from former Uber passengers who allege they were sexually assaulted or harassed by their drivers. The cases assert claims of negligence, breach of contract, and product liability, arguing that Uber failed to implement appropriate safety precautions.

The MDL No. 3084 webpage on the US courts website provides a detailed procedural history of the case, documenting various pretrial orders and motions. Key procedural developments have included the appointment of a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, the establishment of discovery schedules, and court orders addressing motions from both sides, including those related to the company’s terms of service and protective orders. The court’s documents provide a detailed account of the ongoing litigation.

Joseph L. Ciaccio, an attorney for the plaintiff, underscored the need for accountability. “When a passenger enters an Uber, they are required to trust that the driver is someone that Uber has done their due diligence on to ensure their safety,” he stated. “For a young woman, traveling overseas, being kidnapped against her will and sexually assaulted is the worst violation of that trust imaginable.”

Finance Colombia reached out to Uber for comment on the lawsuit, and Uber indicated that it had no comment.

Uber Taxi app. Photo credit: Stroganova from Pixabay.

The proposed legislation would require ride-hailing platforms to register as transportation companies, imposing standards around licensing, insurance, taxation, and labor relations. Proponents argue that the bill addresses longstanding concerns within the traditional taxi sector regarding market competition and safety regulations. However, the move has sparked debate over the potential impact on the flexibility and accessibility that these platforms offer consumers and drivers.

Regulatory Standards and Compliance Requirements

Under the proposed bill, ride-hailing platforms would be obligated to adhere to several compliance measures currently applied to traditional taxi services. Key provisions include mandatory insurance for passengers, licensing for drivers, and vehicle inspections. The bill also proposes a taxation framework, which would require ride-hailing platforms to pay fees comparable to those imposed on traditional taxi companies.

Ride hailing platforms remain popular in Colombia, in part due to the dismal reputation of taxi operators in the capital city of Bogotá.

In a statement, the authors of the bill argued that the proposed regulations are necessary to create a “level playing field” between traditional taxis and ride-hailing services, addressing what they view as an imbalance in regulatory obligations. According to the legislative proposal, these changes are intended to promote fair competition while enhancing passenger safety and accountability.

Impact on Drivers and Labor Standards

The legislation also aims to introduce specific labor standards for drivers working on ride-hailing platforms, potentially affecting how these companies classify their workforce. Current regulations do not mandate formal labor protections for drivers, a point that has been raised in recent debates over the gig economy. If passed, the bill would compel ride-hailing platforms to provide social security and other benefits to drivers, a shift that could impact the platforms’ business models and operational costs.

Representatives from ride-hailing companies have expressed concerns about the proposed labor requirements, arguing that they could limit driver flexibility and reduce earnings. However, labor advocates and some members of Congress maintain that formalizing employment conditions for drivers is necessary to ensure fair treatment and economic security.

Reactions from Industry Stakeholders

The bill has garnered mixed reactions from industry stakeholders. While representatives from Colombia’s traditional taxi sector have welcomed the proposed regulations, citing long-standing concerns over competition and regulatory parity, ride-hailing companies warn that the legislation could hinder service availability and affordability.

Uber, DiDi, and Cabify have each issued statements advocating for a regulatory approach that respects the unique business models of digital platforms. They argue that excessive regulation could reduce consumer choice and increase costs for passengers, potentially undermining the benefits that ride-hailing services bring to urban transportation networks.

The bill’s authors acknowledge these concerns but argue that the regulations are essential for establishing an equitable transportation landscape. They maintain that formal regulation of ride-hailing services will enhance transparency and protect passenger safety.

Legislative Outlook

As the bill moves through Congress, its potential impact on the Colombian transportation sector remains a focal point of discussion. Some lawmakers have suggested amending certain provisions to ease the compliance burden on ride-hailing companies, while others advocate for strict adherence to the proposed standards. The bill’s progress will likely depend on negotiations that balance the interests of traditional taxi operators, ride-hailing platforms, and consumers.

If passed, this legislation would mark a pivotal change for Colombia’s ride-hailing sector, setting a new precedent in Latin America for regulating digital platforms. For now, all eyes remain on Congress as lawmakers weigh the future of ride-hailing services within Colombia’s regulatory landscape.

See also: Nationwide Taxi Driver Protest Against Uber Clogs Roads Across Colombia

The service is available in 17 cities across Colombia and offers income-based financing to drivers. Loans of up to COP 1,000,000 (approximately USD 240) are available, with repayment terms ranging from three to five months, depending on driver activity on the inDrive app. The loan system is fully integrated into the app, allowing drivers to apply for loans, check balances, and manage repayments directly. Repayments are automatically deducted alongside the commission that inDrive takes for each ride, providing a streamlined solution for drivers to handle their finances without disrupting their usual app activities.

Unlike platforms such as Über & Lyft, InDrive allows the passenger to name his/her own price. Drivers also keep more of what they earn.

inDrive Money first launched in Mexico in February 2024 as part of inDrive’s broader strategy to offer financial services to gig economy workers, a group often underserved by traditional financial institutions. The initiative aligns with the company’s mission to address social inequities by offering more inclusive financial options.

Alina Zavorokhina, Head of Business and Product at inDrive Money, emphasized the mutual trust between the platform and its drivers. “inDrive Money gives drivers the opportunity to access loans directly through our app, helping them invest in their work or improve their financial well-being,” she said, highlighting the collaboration with R2.

R2 Co-Founder and CEO Roger Larach commented on the partnership’s expansion to Colombia, following its success in Mexico. “Our integrated solution allows drivers to access capital quickly and efficiently, supporting financial inclusion throughout the country,” Larach said. R2’s approach evaluates drivers based on their activity on the inDrive platform rather than relying on traditional credit histories.

A recent survey of inDrive drivers indicated that 72% would recommend inDrive Money to colleagues. The primary reasons for taking out loans were vehicle maintenance (32%) and covering personal expenses (28%). Drivers noted the transparency and convenience of managing loans directly through the app as key benefits.

For more information about inDrive Money, visit money.indrive.com.

About inDrive
inDrive is a global platform offering mobility and urban services, with over 240 million downloads. Operating in 779 cities across 46 countries, inDrive provides services ranging from ride-hailing to freight delivery and intercity transportation. The company is committed to challenging social injustices through its business practices and community programs. For more information, visit www.inDrive.com.

About R2
Founded in 2020, R2 is a fintech firm focused on enabling technology platforms to provide financing to small and medium businesses. It works with leading companies across Latin America and is backed by several investment firms. More details can be found at r2.co.

Image provided by InDrive.

From Fedesarrollo this week we had two reports:

Firstly, their monthly financial sector for February survey saw a sense of calm. The expectations for 2023 inflation rose slightly (from 8.89%-9.00%) as did the terminal interest rate (13%-13.25%) but growth for the same 2023 fell from 1.5% to 1.1% – although that remains above many other estimates, including the Central Bank (0.3%). In terms of the COLCAP, Ecopetrol and Bancolombia remain the top picks, but amidst a pessimistic view for the overall market.

Briefly on interest rates, the Central Bank head Villar stated on Thursday that Colombia was close to the end of the tightening cycle and that the impact on inflation should come soon.

Also from Fedesarrollo we had the Retail ($29.7%) and Industrial (3.6%) confidence data for January and both came in better than expected and significantly higher than December – a surprise given the poor Consumer Confidence number (-28.6%) for the same month.

Within the construction sector there is something of a confusing picture. There was a 50% drop in new home sales in January and with mortgage rates, which have never been low anyway, rising sharply, that is understandable. That said, anecdotally, at least here in Medellin – prices continue to rise sharply, that is if you can find anything to buy ! On the public side the 4G projects are largely into the home straight but the 5G works will be coming on line towards the back end of 2023 which will compensate and move that sector forward.

Solid news from the oil sector again as Campetrol reported January production of 773k bpd – down slightly on December’s 784k bpd however it was still 4.6% higher YoY and part of a gradual improvement in the trend which began to manifest itself in October.

Sticking with oil – Brent has had a complicated week and this has been reflected in the Peso which has been struggling. DXY has also largely moved against the Peso due to a mix of interest rate concerns and geopolitical events.

Within the equity market, the MSCI Colcap is still playing with a dangerous support level. In the meantime, Grupo Argos has joined Celsia & Cementos Argos in announcing continued buyback programs, between the three entities approvals are sought for US$200mn.

Wishing you all a peaceful weekend.

Roops

“We are going to give all for all, and if this government or someone else says that they are going to approve old private vehicles to provide the service, we are going to mobilize throughout the country and take over the airports,” said Opsina.

During an interview with the television program Noticias RCN, Ospina complained about the treatment of cab drivers in the country, whom he claims are being adversely affected by transportation apps and are being pushed into suicide due to the economic effects that they are experiencing with the new competition. He does not mention the dismal reputation taxi drivers, especially in Bogotá have, for ripping off, and even robbing passengers.

“Why don’t you see that there are many taxi drivers in the country who have committed suicide in the last two years? There are ten because they lost their house and lost their taxi, since nobody here wants to control informal transportation. Why don’t they look at what is happening with us in the country?” he said.

Guillermo Reyes, the Minister of Transportation, expressed disappointment at Ospina’s threat of a mass mobilization of taxi drivers in the country, saying that he is “opposed to the blockades,” and calling for a formal sit-down meeting to hammer out a proposal that could satisfy the taxi guild and keep them from striking.

“Since October we have a taxi drivers’ worktable, we have been building, among other regulations, the bill with them. When they say that they are going to block, my question is: Why can’t we talk? That is the invitation, to all taxi drivers, to all Über drivers. This is a country that cannot have exclusions, the change lies in that, in sitting down to build on the basis of a consensus,” Reyes said.

In a tweet about the situation, President Gustavo Petro said, “They seek to pit some workers against other workers, so that the chaos does not allow a peaceful climate for social reforms,” saying that “[both] the people who work on platforms and the taxi drivers” are overexploited.

Reyes has been pushing for a new proposal that increases sanctions on drivers of vehicles for private transportation apps in the wake of increasing protests from the taxi drivers in the country.

“This is the bill that seeks to establish and modify the entire issue of the sanctioning regime of the transport sector and there we are going to deal with the issue of how we are going to fight against informality and illegality in transportation,” he said. “We cannot allow private cars and motorcycles to provide a public transportation service that is not formalized.”

Despite this, Reyes has also promised that the new proposal will not be aiming to disallow or ban transportation apps like Über, DiDi, and InDriver in the country: “Nowhere does the draft of the project establish the prohibition of the provision of transport services through the platforms.”

Above photo: Violent anti-Über taxi protest where taxi drivers threw eggs at passing cars (Photo: Loren Moss)

1. Don’t wear expensive watches or gold necklaces. In big urban areas, Colombians don’t, and neither should you. You will not see Colombians walking around with expensive jewelry on the street because of the risk of theft. If they are going to attend a formal event, they will go in private vehicles. A pedestrian wearing these expensive items will not look wealthy, he will look clueless.
2. Don’t use your high-end smartphone on a busy street. If you must make or take a call, best to duck into a corner store or coffee shop, buy a soft drink and conduct your business there. If you wish to take a photo, that’s fine but just look around and be sure you aren’t the object of anyone’s attention.
3. Don’t carry lots of cash. The vast majority of retail establishments and commercial restaurants in Colombia accept bank cards like Visa and Mastercard. Leave your stash in your hotel safe, or a secure area of your apartment, and don’t walk around with more cash than you expect to spend that same day. ATMs, or automated cash machines are widespread in Colombian urban areas, and generally work fine with foreign cards enabled for international transactions.  When withdrawing cash or purchasing items with a bank card in Colombia, you may be presented with the option of accepting a conversion from pesos to dollars. Generally you want to decline this, as they are almost certainly offering you an unfavorable rate compared to your own bank or financial services provider. Of course, rural areas and small artisan vendors or “mom & pop” restaurants may not always accept charge cards. Large shopping malls often have options for licensed money exchangers. Be sure to count your money and store it in your wallet or purse before leaving their service counter.
4. Be careful partying with strangers. In the US and Europe, we hear about “date rape drugs.” Similar substances are used in Colombia to rob tourists—and Colombians of their belongings. Even when the police investigate, few tourists have the means in time or money to stick around for the prosecution to make its way through the courts, so with no witness, the criminals eventually go unpunished. Some criminals have a modus operandi targeting foreign visitors, using for example, attractive young women or friendly “bros” who know “where the party’s at” as bait. You may notice that when liquor is ordered at most clubs and bars in Colombia (but not in international hotels), the bottle is opened at your table in your presence. This is to show you that the drink is not adulterated, and the bar staff is not “slipping anything into your drink.” When drinking with people you do not know, do not leave your drinks unattended. Drinking a beer and headed to the restroom? Take your beer with you.

5. Be prudent about transportation. Taxis in Medellín are generally straightforward, and the price in pesos is whatever is shown on the taxi meter. The official white cars to and from the airport operate at a fixed rate, which you should confirm before leaving. In Bogotá, the taxis have a notoriously bad reputation, and even many Colombians avoid them, using either Über, or InDriver ride hailing apps. InDriver has the advantage of allowing the passenger to “make your own offer” of how much you wish to pay. It also takes a much smaller cut of the fare, so the drivers prefer it. In Cartagena, there are no taxi meters so be sure to agree on a price before entering the taxi. Most hotels also can arrange transportation with providers they trust, but the transportation is more expensive. You can rent a car in Colombia but understand that there is no legal limit for blood alcohol. Driving with any detectable alcohol in your system whatsoever is an arrestable crime.
6. Don’t abuse drugs! Not only is it illegal in Colombia, and Colombian prisons are “not pleasant,” illegal narcotics are often a means of delivery of the disabling hallucinogens like Rohypnol or the more common Scopolamine, made from a flowering tree found in Colombia distantly related to the Tomato. Crime victims are often reluctant to report the crime because their drug use will show up in the resultant medical attention. The situation is worse when the victims are not fluent in Spanish, or don’t have resources to pay for medical care. Along with not abusing drugs, public drunkenness is not only ugly, it puts you at risk for victimization by criminals.

The ride hailing service says it is to cover expenses such as the fare between Medellín and the airport, though it continues to charge residents local to Medellín’s airport, actually located in Rionegro.  So far, no problem when disclosed in advance, but Finance Colombia readers were recently shown examples of Über charging  airport surcharges for trips that were explicitly not to or from local airports. In Bogotá for example the airport is located in an industrial area with many offices and warehouses. Cartagena’s international Airport is in an urban area, and Medellín’s José Maria Córdova airport is in a suburban area surrounded by free zones, offices, and a major hospital.

To test these complaints, Finance Colombia booked an Über trip to and from Rionegro, Colombia to the San Vicente Hospital complex, a large healthcare facility a few minutes from—but not connected to—the nearby international airport. Sure enough, there were airport surcharges, and no way to remove them.

Über customer service was contacted, and their response was “too bad!” Translated from Spanish, they said:

“We understand the situation that you indicate to us and that it seems to you that this airport charge should not have been collected. We tell you that we have reviewed the details of your lease and we note that this charge was made correctly. Likewise, for MDE leases, a surcharge of COP 26,700 is added to your suggested price, in the same way the suggested price at the time of requesting your lease was respected, so this time we cannot make any adjustments to your lease. We appreciate your understanding.”

Finance Colombia reached out to Über for clarification on this policy, and received the following statement from the firm on their Colombia policy:

“The charge for the Rionegro airport, which serves the city of Medellín, is designed to compensate lessors that have to drive long distances, pay tolls, and very commonly, return to the city without another user. For this reason, it covers both the airport and its surrounding area. Due to an individual case we received, we have corrected the geo coverage so that it does not include the street where the Hospital San Vicente in Rionegro is located. We are constantly learning from the experience of users, so that we can build a better platform together.”

The takeaway from this seems to be: Always check carefully the presented fares before accepting a trip. If something doesn’t seem right, or if there are surcharges that don’t coincide with the trip starting point or destination, the traveler is wise to understand available alternatives.

Know your options

Other alternatives to Über are available in Colombia. InDriver is a popular app with Colombians, with the advantage of allowing both the rider and driver to “name your price.” A rider can offer a price that drivers can accept, bid on, or submit a counter offer. Cabify is another app that is taxi-friendly. On both alternatives, taxi drivers often offer their services as drivers. In all cases, riders and drivers should always take security and safety precautions like texting the car and driver (or rider) details to a trusted friend, perhaps with photos, before using any service-including taxis and livery vehicles. Always confirm the identity of your driver or rider before beginning transportation.

Finance Colombia executive editor first encountered Raisbeck when he was running as the Libertarian candidate for Bogotá’s mayor, 6 years ago. Now with the votes being counted in Peru’s election between a self-identified Marxist and an authoritarian daughter of a former president currently serving a prison sentence for trampling human rights and supporting death squads, the following conversation with Raisbeck couldn’t have come at a better time.

What can observers take from events in Peru? And what takeaways are relevant for Colombia’s upcoming 2022 elections, and for economic and civil liberty more broadly in the Americas? Daniel Raisbeck has some prescient observations.

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Daniel Raisbeck, and I know you are an academic here in Colombia, based in Bogota, you have a long resume. I met you when you were the libertarian candidate for mayor in Bogota, but I know that you also work with the Reason Foundation. Tell us what would you describe yourself as; what occupies your time mostly? When you meet somebody in an elevator, how do you describe yourself for the readers?

Daniel Raisbeck: Yes, well first of all thanks a lot for the invitation Loren, it’s great to talk to you again. Well, when I get that question I guess the straight answer is that I’m part academic but I’ve really worked mostly in journalism during the past few years before I was at Reason I was a chief editor at the PanAm Post for a few years and now I do also a lot of digital marketing for Reason, and I did that before as well; so I think it’s part of an editor’s job nowadays.

Finance Colombia: PanAm post is a great political publication, we’ve interacted with them before, we’ve done interviews with them before and they are a great publication for keeping up on politics down here in Latin America. So now, what I want to ask you is that this is an election year in several countries, Ecuador just had elections, Peru is in the middle of counting their final round in elections, Colombia is gearing up for elections next year, and it’s interesting because you can look at things from a free market perspective. Obviously, free people deserve free markets and we have luminaries, we have people like Hernando de Soto who was a candidate in the first round in Peru, he didn’t make it to the final round; and my question to you throughout this conversation, really what I want to ask is as we as we look at Ecuador, as we look at Peru as we look at what might be coming up in Colombia is through the lens of free markets and free trade and civil liberties as well what can we take away from these elections?

What can observers take from events in Peru? And what takeaways are relevant for Colombia’s upcoming 2022 elections, and for economic and civil liberty more broadly in the Americas? Daniel Raisbeck has some prescient observations.

I think that Ecuador, if we start with Ecuador they’ve gone from a very leftist candidate before with Correa then they went to Moreno who everybody thought was going to kind of, not everybody, but people thought was going to really pattern Correa but he went in a little bit of a different path, I wouldn’t call him a you know necessarily a free market person but he did at least go in an unexpected direction and now we have Guillermo Lasso who just beat Andres Arauz, what does that say for the region, what does that say for the prospects of governance, civil liberties? And I know this is a huge question but also if we look at trade regionally, trade within internationally and then of course, Ecuador is an interesting case because it’s a dollarized economy, can we read anything from this in some ways a surprise result, a lot of people weren’t expecting it. Maybe it says that the people in Ecuador had enough or wanted to go in a different direction. I’m not an Ecuador expert and I’m not native to the region. How do you analyze the results here in Ecuador with Lasso’s win?

Daniel Raisbeck: Well, I think it’s definitely the feel-good libertarian story of the year because Lasso is sometimes described in the mainstream media and in English, also in Spanish as a as a conservative because as far as I understand I think he’s a member of Opus Dei and maybe he’s conservative from that social perspective, but he has very strong ties to the libertarian community in Ecuador and actually not a lot of people know this outside of the country but Ecuador has one of the strongest, if not the strongest network of libertarian institutions in terms of think tanks and academics and even certain institutions like the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce.

The people that have staffed and led it in the past few years have been very much in favor of free market ideas, which is not the case for example with a Chamber of Commerce, a typical Chamber of Commerce in Colombia, which is just usually just a croniest kind of facade for commerce but anyway, so I think yes it is a surprise because Lasso actually barely made it into the the second round into the runoff, I think he got even he was under 20% of the votes he barely beat this other guy Yaku Perez, an indigenous candidate and Andres Arauz was Correa’s protégé, or whatever you want to call him, he got over 30% of the voting, so he was the favorite.

And I think there were several things from what I saw and you mentioned it Loren, Ecuador is a dollarized economy since 2000 and in my opinion that has been their great advantage and that’s what saved them during the Correa years because Correa who was an ally, close ally of Hugo Chavez, he didn’t like dollarization he was a critic of dollarization even before he was president when he was an economics professor. So he wanted to get rid of it, he even tried with this parallel currency that he tried to introduce but it failed and the interesting thing is Arauz was even more radical than Correa. So he had a paper that he published I think before he was a candidate or a blog post in which he explained step by step what had to be done in order to de-dollarize Ecuador, which included basically very strong currency controls and other very harsh measures, and the interesting thing there is that at the beginning in  2000 when Ecuador had to dollarize with inflation, somewhere between 60%-70% of the population was against using the dollar, and now after two decades it’s around 80% or more I think it’s 88% in the last poll I saw in favor of the dollar and they don’t want to go back to the Sucre or any other new currency with someone like Arauz in charge.

And it was very radical what he was proposing, he wanted to use the reserves of the central bank to just basically hand out money and it was going to be, I think it was going to be a very difficult situation if he was elected for Ecuador so I think it’s very hopeful results, not only for Ecuador but for the region. But again you can’t read too much into it because it’s only one country, and the same day that that Lasso won, we were encouraged at first with Hernando de Soto as you mentioned in Peru who was about to qualify for the runoff, he was in second place at the beginning but they’re very slow in counting the votes and by the next day he was no longer in second place. Now its between well Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, but the worrying part, I mean I’m not a big fan of Keiko but the worrying part is this Pedro Castillo guy who came in first place who is an avowed Marxist…I was reading his program and I mean they’re quoting Marx, he’s praising Fidel Castro and Vladimir Lenin, they’re proposing to nationalize all the strategic sectors of the economy, regulate the free press, so I mean this is the real deal in terms of hardcore Chavismo and I think it’s very worrisome what’s happening now in Peru.

Finance Colombia: Yes, I think that you know it’s weird because we have Fujimori, Keiko’s father, Alberto Fujimori, on one hand he can take a lot of credit for defeating the Sendero Luminoso, the shining path, the Maoist rebels, on the other hand, and there are some parallels here in Colombia, but I think more stark, on the other hand he’s accused of human rights and civil liberties violations, and so it’s it’s almost like you can look at Pedro Castillo as obviously a threat to economic liberty almost certainly civil liberty, but then it’s not exactly that Keiko Fujimori has a great record for clean governance and so, Peru is almost more worrying than Ecuador.

Aside from these two candidates, and aside from this election in the past two years the governance crisis in Peru as far as the ability of anyone to govern and there’s a certain degree of instability there, not like a military coup kind of instability but in almost like a constitutional crisis, and I would wonder if either of these people whoever wins, I would bet against either one of them finishing up their term the way that things go, and I know I don’t know anything about Peru, here in Colombia at least I can say I know something about it, I don’t know much about Peru at all so what’s the prognosis, what are the options and the alternatives and what are we going to see in the next two or three to four years?

Daniel Raisbeck: Well, you’re absolutely right about the political instability in Peru because during the last few years you’ve had several presidents end up in jail or former presidents end up in jail, which is quite astonishing from a Colombian perspective because we’ve never had a president even have to resign in the middle of his term as has been happening in in Peru, let alone we have big scandals for example with ex-president Santos, there’s proof and people have gone to jail because Odebrecht financed his campaign, but he’s in the clear, at least he has been for now, you had Ernesto Samper whose campaign was financed by the by the Cali cartel and nothing happened to him either, so it’s very surprising from seeing what happens from Colombia, from one perspective you could say it’s encouraging because you can say at least there’s consequences for these kind of actions, on the other hand it has brought tremendous instability and I think that has contributed to the situation we see now because one of Castillo’s proposals is basically to get rid of the constitution, to hold a constitutional assembly and that’s always dangerous because that’s part of the classic recipe of the Chavista regime or the Chavista playbook. The first thing these guys do when they get in power, they get elected, but the first thing they do is they change the constitution and they change all the rules of the game, the first priority being holding on to power indefinitely. So I think it’s quite clear that this is what Castillo is looking for in in Peru and curiously he has the excuse of instability as a way of introducing his very drastic changes, including changing the entire constitution. And by the way Peru, besides all this political instability that we have been talking about, economically it has been pretty successful, it has introduced a lot of measures in favor of economic liberty, it ranks pretty high in the Cato Institute / Fraser Institute’s economic Freedom Index, you’ve seen tremendous growth and reduction of poverty over the last 20 years.

So I think that the problem with these, and with this obsession with politics that’s fueled also by social media, and you see of course in almost in every country is that…Chile is a very good example, that people very easily lose sight of what they actually have and of achievements that that are real over the past years and decades and then just on the spur of the moment you can have what happened in Chile which is that people actually went out and voted to change the constitution which has produced the most successful results by far, of any Latin American country. But it’s very easy especially for certain political sectors to spread frustration and I mean obviously frustration can be very legitimate and very real, but I don’t think in the case of Chile, in the case of Peru that that merits throwing the constitution out of the window, especially when in both cases the constitutions have produced quite positive results.

Finance Colombia: You know, I have explained to people looking at Latin America, I’ve explained to people that that there’s a history of going out of the frying pan into the fire as we say in English, and I said look it’s not that (Nicaraguan dictator) Somoza was good, but then you go into maybe a worse situation. It’s not that (Cuban dictator) Batista was good but then you go into a worse situation. In Venezuela you actually had maybe a decent president who was very naive and but even still, even there you had kind of like we said, in Colombia, in Peru you had that even worse, you had a very stark social division that led to the conditions that created Chavismo. I think that you mentioned Peru which is by most measures, including economic opportunity has been the most successful country in Latin America, arguably maybe Uruguay can compete with that which is an entirely different situation, but still I think that Peru like you said has been economically successful but it’s had a political governance crisis and a lot of that’s been justifiable, there’s been some corruption and things like that.

There’s been Odebrecht and different things with past presidents, but I think that even in the US, which is relatively stable, as an American I fear a constitutional convention because things can get worse. Because I think that a lot of ideas can come in from some of the worst in western Europe but I think that there are some of the bad things that can come in as far as government intrusion and erosion of civil liberties, and at least there’s a history of that where down here the intellectual pedigree of a free market you have people that are like out there preaching in the wilderness like Hernando de Soto in Peru for example, who they kept trying to blow up for writing books you don’t see a lot of that and so I think that it’s very scary, but let me ask you this, do you see a worst case scenario because it’s not like Castillo no, Keiko Fujimori might win and then we have probably economic liberty but maybe not necessarily good governance or the best human rights record as far as civil liberties either way but then let’s suppose Pedro Castillo wins is it a potential Venezuela or is that hyperbole?

Daniel Raisbeck: Well, I think you have to take these threats very seriously and you have to believe people, you have to believe what they’re saying because I mean the problem in Venezuela as you well know was that people said this will pass, this too will pass and we’re not gonna become the next Cuba, as many Cubans warned them, and in fact they did end up becoming like Cuba, and Argentina they haven’t been that far behind.

I mean the institutions were stronger, they were actually to get rid of them in 2015 and then after a very mediocre government by Mauricio Macri the traditionalists came back to power right? And you still have tremendous problems there with inflation and just terrible economic conditions, you had defaults, you name it, so I do think that what these people say and it’s also you know a case of birds of a feather flocking together so now you have for example Evo Morales gloating about his candidate winning in Peru. So I do think Castillo is part of this movement and I do think it’s very dangerous, and unfortunately as you were saying the only alternative now since de Soto didn’t qualify for the runoff, is Keiko Fujimori and you have a different set of problems as you mentioned; maybe authoritarianism of a different type. I think she’s also in it for her family right?

When I first ran for the house of representatives in 2014 and when I talked about taxes people were looking at me as if I was an alien or insane because that was not an issue in Colombian politics.

But if you’re a Peruvian voter and the problem is that Fujimori name and the family generate so much rejection that there’s a good chance I think, that Castillo can win, but the problem with that is that as I said, I think this is the real deal. His government program is just, I mean it should send chills down anyone’s spine when you read it, because they’re very open about what they want to do and it’s not for instance…

I’m sure you’ve noticed this Loren but in Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who’s our version of Chavez, he’s very skilled at evading these questions so he’s spent the last five or so years trying to disassociate himself completely from Chavez and from Chavismo and Venezuela, even though he used to boast about being an advisor to Chavez and to travel to Venezuela all the time. He brought Chavez to Colombia, to Bogota and so what Petro does for instance is say when they ask him if you want to implement the Venezuelan model, and he says no, he starts talking about climate change and how he doesn’t want to have anything to do with fossil fuels in the economy and all of this, and somehow he fools journalists all the time with that rhetoric but Castillo is very open, he’s praising or his movement is praising Fidel Castro, Lenin, he’s quoting Marx, They described themselves as a Marxist Leninist organization. I mean this guy’s not even trying to hide it so I think you have to take that seriously and if he were to win I mean the thing with these countries is that it’s never from one day to the next, if Castillo wins, the next day it’s not going to be even as—well it usually takes some time, there is some resistance it then it will be a question of how Peru’s institutions actually are able to resist that, but from what we’ve seen and especially if he somehow gets a new constitution made in his image approved, then I think it’s extremely dangerous and of course you can always have a new Venezuela as well, why not?

Finance Colombia: You know it’s scary, we have a lot of readers in the mining sector, we have a lot of readers in the petroleum sector, it’s interesting because now I live here outside of Medellin and I get into some interesting conversations and I say look I’m not Colombian, I’m not trying to take sides or even less to be an “imperialist” and tell Colombians what to do, but sometimes I’m in interesting discussions and I say “I lived in Bogota when Petro was the mayor and I remember the trash scandal and these things and what it’s like, it’s weird because we almost have kind of a Petro like situation happening in Medellin right now.”

Daniel Raisbeck: You’re like the Venezuelans who migrated to Peru.

Finance Colombia: Exactly! And it’s interesting because I talk to people, there’s a lot of people who are…and as you know in Colombia there’s a lot of, there’s like, it’s not a formal movement but I get memes sent to me and WhatsApp and Facebook and things like that and I understand because I mean in the US it’s kind of almost the same thing, it’s like “we don’t want Trump or we don’t want Hillary for different reasons” or down here it’s like “we don’t want Uribe and we don’t want Petro,” you know? Because I know people here who, it’s not that they’re lefties but they are dissatisfied with the human rights record of Uribe, and that’s okay, that’s understandable because I mean part of liberty there’s economic liberty and free trade and free markets but look at what’s happening in the US right now. There’s intrusive government, and one thing I’ve got to give you credit and I’ll go ahead and do this publicly, when I first interviewed you five or six years or seven years ago I was skeptical about your drug policies that you talked about, but you know what? You’re right because I look at the US now. New York has legalized it, the US and the world hasn’t fallen apart, and it’s not that drugs are good. Putting smoke in your lungs isn’t the best thing, but the point is that if you as a sovereign individual have the right over your body, if you want to do that as long as you don’t bother anybody else, as long as you don’t come and steal my television, do what you want to do, and as the libertarian argument has won, we don’t see the world falling apart, right?

But I don’t want to get off on that tangent, the point is still that we get this left argument which is socialism and intrusive government and then we get a right argument which is things like a restriction on social liberties and like, you know, Opus Dei and “let’s make the church a official state organ and let’s make church policies law” and it’s weird because libertarians go “no, so you can’t come and intrude on my private life, no you can’t violate my civil liberties but yes I’m a capitalist and I want to have free trade and in Latin America, the argument—and to the US to a certain degree, but I see less of a public discussion in Latin America, and to a large degree less of a public discussion in Europe too, is that it tends to be this: It’s not a matter of civil liberties and economic liberties together, but it tends to be kind of this Marxism class struggle thing versus this—and I’m not taking a position for or against the church, but kind of like ”let’s make almost like an official religion like we see in the south of the United States,” and my question: Is there a chance of candidates breaking out of that? Is there is there a chance of…I see in Central America sometimes there’s some movements, but what are the prospects, one for that breaking out and then two less…well let me ask you that first and then we’ll come to here locally here in Colombia.

Daniel Raisbeck: Well, you mentioned several points. First about the drug issue, well, I think you’re absolutely right and for instance in my campaign I never said that I’m in favor of drug consumption, it’s just a critique of the inevitable consequences of having drugs being illegal of prohibition because that just leads to just terrible things like people, innocent people being murdered for being innocent bystanders and in the middle of a drug war and of course we saw that in Colombia, especially in the 80s when I was growing up, you see it now in in Mexico and across Central America, and I mean if you think about it, it’s kind of strange because the drug war was officially launched or some scholars consider that the beginning of the drug war was under Richard Nixon and one of the first things that happened was that they were pressuring Mexico into spraying fields, not only poppy fields I think but also marijuana fields with pesticide several decades ago, but now right across the border from where you were spraying, now you have legal marijuana in all these states.

I saw a poll today in in Reason that they published an article about it, I think 66% of Americans favor the end of federal prohibition, and I mentioned that because it’s amazing that in Colombia they legalized medical marijuana a few years ago, but I know and you probably know a lot more than I do from friends in the in the industry that even though you have that on paper, in practice it’s terribly hard for instance to have a bank account opened for these companies, and that’s…I mean, I don’t think politicians should ever intrude in the economy and say we should support this industry or that industry, but this is a no-brainer in the sense…I’m not saying that you should get subsidies because that would be corporate welfare, but I’m saying if you have a product where the where they say in Colombia the brand is already created, it’s probably colombian hemp and where you have the States putting all these obstacles in front of these entrepreneurs and investors, you even have lots of foreign investment from Canada and other countries, and especially in a time like now when you have such high unemployment levels, a need for more taxation to bring in more taxes, you need to create businesses. And why aren’t they making life easy for all these businesses? It’s just mind-boggling to me at least.

Finance Colombia: I agree, I think that the other thing that happened in in the drug war is it changed the relationship fundamentally between the police or between law enforcement more broadly, and the populace because before the police went after the bad guys, they went after robbers, they went after people who did violent crimes and that relationship changed fundamentally to going after people who aren’t doing a crime against anybody, they’re not violating anyone else’s personal liberty or they’re not doing a property crime against anyone but it’s like “let’s search that car or let’s certainly stop and frisk” as they say in the United States, “let’s search that person and we’re gonna search that person for something that they own that’s theirs,” not stolen property or anything that they obtained by deceit or something like that, and in the past years it’s really changed the fundamental relationship.

Now none of this at least from my standpoint is to is to excuse any of the damage that any kinds of drugs have done or anything like that, but the way that the policing is done and the violation of civil rights and even if you say “OK, this is a crime or this isn’t” if you look at like in the US and it’s happening here in Colombia too, what happens to innocent people? Because now “I suspect you because you’re a 20 year old kid and you’ve got long hair, and you’ve got raggedy clothes,” I’m just going to stop you, versus I’ve got on a tie and I’ve got my hair cut, something like that and now it’s like you’re…it’s a crime completely who you are, not that you’ve taken any action or anything like that, and we see that down here as well.

Now you’ve been generous with your time, I do want to ask you, Colombia has elections next year and we look at obviously the perennial people like Petro who probably will be a candidate, you have some interesting things happening where you have Sergio Fajardo, who most people consider to be center left, then you have the Centro Democratico which is really not centrist at all, so my question is from a prognosis but then also looking at it through a lens of liberty, because I don’t think that…you know Petro obviously is no fan of economic liberty, what’s the prognosis as far as the panorama and aside from the three that I mentioned, if we look at other maybe candidates out there like Char, like Vargas Lleras, what do you see as the weather forecast for 2022 from a really what might happen perspective, but then also let’s look at it from an economic freedom and civil liberty perspective?

Daniel Raisbeck: Well Loren, this is something I write about often and yes, I think you’re absolutely right in terms of, I mean Petro is just hard left, he tries to camouflage that somehow or to or to hide it with his rhetoric about climate change and the environment but he—I mean he was an ex guerrilla member, I mean, last time he was a candidate he said exactly which companies he was going to expropriate, he says you have to print money, as much money as possible to get out of the of the current crisis. I mean from whatever perspective you see it, he is definitely not what you need in Colombia right now.

“Uribe is by no means a conservative in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. I mean there’s nothing Thatcherite or Reaganite about Uribe. I mean he introduced the wealth tax in Colombia when he was president, when he said as all taxes, that it wasn’t going to be permanent and it was going to be temporary, and it’s become permanent and now his party wants to make it even more permanent.”

The problem again and I think it’s similar to other countries for instance Peru at the moment, is that the alternative and I mean, by what I mean the most probable alternative which is some candidate from Uribe’s party, is that as you said their only ideology is Alvaro Uribe, so this is very difficult for people in Colombia, especially in the media to understand, but if you get rid of the whole debate around the FARC because it was when he was president he went after the FARC as you know, with a lot of impetus but if you get rid of that, if you ignore that and if you look at their actual policies, Uribe is by no means a conservative in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. I mean there’s nothing Thatcherite or Reaganite about Uribe. I mean he introduced the wealth tax in Colombia when he was president, when he said as all taxes, that it wasn’t going to be permanent and it was going to be temporary, and it’s become permanent and now his party wants to make it even more permanent.

Finance Colombia: Yes, it’s a different conversation.

Daniel Raisbeck: He created all kinds of subsidies and he was proud of it, he’s proud. He doesn’t see a welfare state as a kind of a crutch that you need to kind of help people when they need it and to get them off welfare as soon as possible. He is and his party, they are proud of the amount of people that are on welfare and they try to increase the number of people who are on welfare for electoral reasons I think, and when you see things like the debate over Uber, the sharing economy has had so many problems in Colombia and the peak absurdity in my point of view because Uber is technically or has been technically illegal, but a lot of people use it anyway, they’re taxed and they’re taxed so it’s illegal but they’re taxed.

Finance Colombia: So many government people use Uber.

Daniel Raisbeck: Yes, of course.

Finance Colombia: And the only reason Uber still functions is because if you want to get from downtown up to up north to where you live or something like that, you know, and especially in Bogota where the taxis are so well loved, and I’m being sarcastic, you know, because so many people even in the government rely on Uber that’s why they’re not shutting it down but they just harass the drivers, they grab your car and then you have the Colombian equivalent of civil forfeiture happening down here, and it’s almost a form of government sanctioned corruption.

Daniel Raisbeck: Yes, but I mean Uribe was in favor of the taxi lobby against Uber when, this was before the pandemic, because it’s…yeah it’s not the main debate anymore, and he’s been in favor of tariffs to help different industries, he’s very interventionist, he’s even ended up as an ally in the congress of Jorge Enrique Robledo, so I mean from a pro-liberty or libertarian or classical liberal standpoint or whatever you want to call it, it’s very frustrating because people associate Uribe as a right-wing neoliberal conservative, but when you look at what he actually does I mean there’s nothing of the sort, and there’s no real alternative, and from my experience at least when you try to for example to run as an independent, it’s also very difficult because there are all these barriers to entry in the market so it’s very expensive and the political parties are all about bullying for themselves and they have set up all these obstacles to prevent any real competition, much as is the case in the real economy.

Finance Colombia: So if you look at of the candidates that might run in the next election, who would you say is the, if you were to rate them obviously probably Petro would be at the far end of the scale but who would be the friendliest and we don’t know who’s going to run yet, but of the people that are kind of in the chattering class as we say or the gossip of who might be a candidate next year, who would be probably in the front runner strictly through the lens of “free people = free markets?”

Daniel Raisbeck: Yes, well, it’s difficult not to be pessimistic, I try not to be pessimistic, but I think Petro at the moment is running very strong and he’s definitely going to be a favorite and I think a lot of people write him off just because they say he’s never going to be president and I think it’s very dangerous to make those assumptions, of course you can be president and there’s nothing in fact—he came very close a couple of years ago, so that first of all. But in terms of for example who I would vote for, if the elections were today or tomorrow the only candidate who I see and we’re a pre-candidate because we haven’t even entered that primary stage or if you want to call it that, but the only one who I’ve heard making the right kinds of noises even though I’m not his biggest fan is Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogota because he has been outspoken at least on Twitter for what it’s worth criticizing these tax reforms, criticizing this idea that you can just tax the rich to no end and that that’s the way to finance this European style welfare state that everyone in Colombia fantasizes with, and the assumption is that through wealth taxes or taxing businesses or the big businesses that already contribute the largest amounts to the state that you’re going to be able to solve all problems.

And so he’s been pretty outspoken about that, and he’s saying the obvious thing, which no politician or I usually don’t hear politicians saying, which is that, “fine you can have a punitive tax regime” which is what you already have in Colombia and they want to make it even worse, no one’s no one is stopping you from that, you’re  a sovereign country you can have that, but the consequences of that are that, a) you’re not going to have capital coming in because people don’t want to, especially in a country like Colombia, people don’t want to, risk—investors who want to risk their capital in order to further their profits, to be taxed into oblivion, and on the other hand you have people who are already in Colombia but if they feel the tax pressure is overbearing then they can very easily leave because they have the money.

Finance Colombia: Exactly.

Daniel Raisbeck: Which has been happening so I would root for Peñalosa at the moment. Do I think he’s going to win? No, would I even be enthusiastic that if he were to win that he would implement these ideas? No because I also know him from Bogota. He did some good things as mayor but he’s also very statist…but he’s very statist in urban politics kind of way.

Finance Colombia: In context you’ve got I mean you can’t look at somebody, you know, we’re not going to elect Hayek so you’ve got to take it in, so I know…

Daniel Raisbeck: I completely understand, and I mean I voted for Duque four years ago, and Duque was saying, the current president his entire camp—And that’s why I feel that to a certain extent what the few libertarians in Colombia, what we’ve done has been somewhat successful in terms of setting the terms of the debates because when I first ran for the house of representatives in 2014 and when I talked about taxes people were looking at me as if I was an alien or insane because that was not an issue in Colombian politics.

I think the last politician who really talked seriously about taxes was Alvaro Gomez in the 80s and 90s, I mean of course because of the FARC situation and the security situation, but taxes weren’t really on the top of the agenda and if you look at Duque’s campaign, Duque, I mean you can see it on Twitter because people are retweeting his material from the campaign. He was promising, he was criticizing Santos’ high taxes, he was promising to lower taxes even though it came with the with the caveat of lowering taxes and raising wages, which kind of you can’t do by government fiat, but the fact that he made cutting, he was talking about austerity, about reducing the size of the state, getting rid of useless government agencies. The fact that he had to constantly mention that I think, it was a positive development during that campaign and the problem now is that he instead of doing what he said he was going to do, he did the exact opposite. He’s been raising taxes, he not only didn’t get rid of useless state agencies, but he created new ones like the Ministry of Sport among others! So right, it’s a difficult situation so even if you get a guy like Peñalosa and he wins on that platform, there’s nothing guaranteeing that he would actually implement these free market policies.

Finance Colombia: Let alone you know, getting things through congress and I think that Peñalosa is interesting because he was pretty well regarded at least in hindsight from his first term. My opinion as an outsider but as an outsider that follows Colombian politics was that Bogota politically had become so polarized that whoever gets in there, you’re going to have half of the people against you and it seems like you’re almost in a no-win situation, and I think the US is kind of going through a phase like this too where there’s a polarization to that is impinging upon governance.

I remember when Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill would get together and work things out, you know? I’m from Ohio and in Ohio the Republican governor Jim Rhodes would get together with Verne Riffe, who was the Democrat speaker of the Ohio House. Same situation at the state level and they had their ideologies and they had their beliefs, but they would get together and hammer out governance and they were opponents but they were not enemies, and today we have situations where we have people that look at each other as enemies and that negatively affects governance. You’ve been great with your time I really appreciate it, I hope to have you back more frequently. I mean it’s just like the saying goes free people deserve free markets and we don’t editorialize a lot in Finance Colombia but the two go hand in hand and it’s a chicken or egg thing: You can’t really in the long term have one without the other and it’s not even the most popular thing in the US but it’s even more of a rarity down here where people go: “what can we get?” or there’s this corporatism and there’s this idea of, “I’m gonna buy votes using the government,” not specifically in Colombia but really as a region and then to be fair, it’s not a Latin American problem because we look back at ancient Rome with voting in bread and circuses leading to destruction, so it’s not like picking on Latin America, it’s really a human condition and so I want to encourage you and I really am looking forward to continuing to re-engage with you to get your expert opinion on colombian politics within the region as a whole.

Daniel Raisbeck: Well thanks Loren very much and as I said at the beginning I think before we started the interview that I really admire your work at Finance Colombia, I follow you and follow the newsletters on the website and please do keep it up.

Finance Colombia: Okay, stay safe.

Here are some of the reasons why:

• Police Brutality — The often-heavy handed police response to protesters has raised the temperature in the country. Colombians, especially the youth remember recent incidents of police brutality, including the macabre killing of law student Javier Ordóñez last year in a Bogotá police station which sparked protests against police brutality…sparking more police brutality in a counter-response! In this age of camera phones and social media, acts that would previously go unreported now are witnessed by millions. Multiple cases of police brutality have been witnessed and acknowledge even by the Colombian government’s own human rights ombudsman. These further angered protesters and poured fuel onto a fire that quite possibly would have burned out last week.
• “Let Them Eat…Eggs” — Marie Antoinette had her apocryphal “Let them eat cake” quote before ending up beheaded in revolutionary France. Colombia’s package of tax hikes and revenue measures was already going to have a challenge getting through Congress, but when Duque’s Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla made media rounds to talk up the need for fiscal reform (which in some form is absolutely necessary to pull Colombia back from a fiscal and monetary crisis), he may have condemned his own brainchild to derision and failure after a clown-show performance in an interview with media personality Vicky Dávila.
  

  “On the issue of eggs, it depends on its quality. Let’s say $1,800 COP (48 cents, US) a dozen or something like that.”

  Carrasquilla demonstrated how far out of touch he was with Colombian consumers when Davila asked him if he knew how much a dozen eggs cost in Colombia;  Carrasquilla proposed adding Colombia’s 19% VAT tax to basic foodstuffs like eggs and rice, also to gasoline and funerals, while exempting firearms and sugary soft drinks. Carrasquilla’s answer? “On the issue of eggs, it depends on its quality. Let’s say $1,800 COP (48 cents, US) a dozen or something like that.” A dozen eggs in Colombia costs an average of approximately $8,000 COP ($2.20 USD), though that price may fluctuate widely based on grade, packaging and purchase channel.  Colombians immediately seized on this to lambast Carrasquilla, Duque, and their political clan as inept elites completely detached, unaware of, and unconcerned with the struggles of most Colombians. Whether true or not, the public now had memes for their discontent. Carrasquilla was known for being media-shy and publicly reclusive, but he inadvertently became an effective spokesperson for his own opposition. Like Marie Antoinette, Carrasquilla was soon relieved of his duties…but kept his head.

• Broken Promises — Commitments the current administration made during massive strikes two years ago have not been made. Once strikers called off protests after President Duque promised to work with them, nothing happened. This time around, protesters don’t trust the president. Though he has stated that his fiscal reform package would be withdrawn, many simply don’t believe him. Percy Oyola, president of the strike organizing group called General Confederation of Workers (CGT), explained that the government “has had the opportunity to address and resolve claims since the large mobilizations carried out in November 2019, but it never set out to install a negotiating table and concertation. On the contrary, (Duque) always stigmatized and acted with violence against protesters.”
• Targeted assassinations — The anger over the Duque administration’s failure to address the rising massacres and targeted killings of social activists and ethnic leaders is at a boiling point. The current administration has done its best to sabotage the historic peace accords negotiated by former President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The Duque administration prefers to pretend the massacres aren’t happening, even conjuring up the term “collective homicides” in the apparent hope that calling a cat a dog can get it to bark.
• Close criminal ties — Duque’s political allies have lost credibility. His political godfather, former president and current Senator Alvaro Uribe left office in 2000 hailed as a hero who made Colombia safe from communist guerillas and open to investors and tourists. As the years have gone on however, revelations about human rights abuses during his term, including government massacres of innocent civilians not involved with insurgency have come surfaced, along with evidence from the none other than the US State Department that Uribe, in the US government’s words “almost certainly had dealings with the paramilitaries.”
  

  Photo of Marta Lucia Ramirez by Felipe Castaño, Vicepresidency of The Republic

  Uribe is currently facing charges and was for several weeks under house arrest for witness tampering and attempts at bribery.  His own brother Santiago Uribe has served 4 years in prison, charged with murder and forming the “12 Apostles” paramilitary death squad. His trial only ended in February, and the judge has yet to issue a ruling.Duque’s own Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez carefully crafted a political reputation as a crime fighter, but within the past two years it was revealed that she paid $150,000 USD to bail out her own brother, who was convicted in Miami for heroin trafficking. Just months before she tried unsuccessfully to sue investigative journalists into silence when Insight Crime revealed that she and her husband did a real estate deal with the alleged paramilitary commander and elusive drug kingpin Guillermo Acevedo, also known by his super-villain alias Memo Fantasma.

• Contempt for Human Rights — People are furious with the Duque administration’s human rights reputation. Duque’s political party, the Centro Democratico attacks anyone who raises the issue of human or civil rights as a communist or insurgent sympathizer. They have openly verbally attacked civil society organizations, and even government human rights agencies such as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a tribunal tasked with adjudicating just punishments while reintegrating and reconciling former combatants with society. Retired Colombian General Luis Humberto Poveda called human rights activists “rats & assassins.” The United Nations stated it had grave concerns regarding persistent violence, misuse of the Colombian armed forces by the Ivan Duque administration, and the inability or lack of will by the government to implement the peace process agreed to by the previous administration of Juan Manuel Santos, or to protect human rights activists. Just over a year ago, the Colombian army was caught with an “enemies list” of social activists, journalists, and even elected Colombian senators!  Beyond the President’s own shrinking core of partisans, Colombians just don’t believe the current administration is serious about peace or security, especially security for those not aligned with President Duque.
• COVID Pandemic Failures — The health emergency and resulting economic emergency has been mismanaged according to many. Though the Duque Administration has taken the current pandemic seriously and not tried to deny it like former US President Trump or current President Jair Bolsonario in neighboring Brazil, The slow deployment and scarcity of vaccines has left many frustrated. Colombia is still vaccinating only the elderly, with some exceptions such as for health workers. No vaccines are available for the average Colombian, while many wealthier Colombians have flown abroad to get vaccinated. Currently, health curfews are in effect across many Colombian regions, and the tourism industry has been devastated, leaving many restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues permanently shuttered. Though the President talks often about the Coronavirus Pandemic, urging citizens to take precautions, he has not delivered with the vaccines. Most Colombians have no idea whatsoever when a vaccine will be available for them.
• Militarization — Strike organizers are demanding a “Demilitarization of the cities,” while legislators from his own Centro Democrático party are demanding that Duque impose an internal state of emergency and deploy the Colombian military to quash protests. So far Duque has resisted such a move, but were he to do so, violence and civil unrest would certainly spiral out of control. Though both are currently under the minister of defense, Colombia’s police force and military are separate, and the military is generally not used for urban civil policing. Colombia’s military is largely focused on combatting remaining Marxist insurgents, policing Colombia’s vast wilderness areas and sparsely populated regions, enforcing the borders, and contraband interdiction. The Colombian military is not trained for nor configured for quelling public disturbances. This evening, fake news was spreading across social media networks, with a doctored image of a decree from Duque declaring a national state of emergency and assuming special powers. The image was false, though Duque has made it clear that he would not rule out such actions if necessary.
• Angry Cabbies — Other specific groups with their own axes to grind have taken advantage of the protests and strikes to advocate for their own causes. Taxi drivers in the past days have implemented their “Turtle Plan” which intentionally snarls and blocks traffic. They are upset about a bill being considered in congress that would legalize ride sharing platforms such as Über. The services are technically illegal in Colombia but extremely popular and operate anyway.
• Ticked off Truckers — Truck drivers have also created massive blockages throughout the country. They say they are protesting Duque’s fiscal reform package, but also the increases in tolls and gasoline prices generally. Several toll booths on major thoroughfares have been torched, along with the controversial “fotomulta” traffic cameras that automatically issue fines and penalties to drivers. Truck drivers have stated that they don’t believe Duque when he says that he is withdrawing his tax package.
• Health Reform Legislation — A less famous but still controversial health reform bill has also been widely panned by members of the medical community, and strike leaders have demanded its retraction. It would reorganize and regionalize national health care delivery and add new powers to the national government to regulate and control distribution of health care. The new law would mandate the assignment of a primary care physician that some believe would serve as a medical gatekeeper.
• The “Communists!” — International interference, though many would be tempted to dismiss as far-fetched cannot be completely ruled out. Colombia currently is host to at least 2 million Venezuelan refugees, some of which have been confirmed and outed as spies and intelligence operatives of the Venezuelan government and their Russian allies. Last December, a spy scandal erupted in Bogotá when Russian spies were exposed and expelled from Colombia. Venezuelan government spies have also been exposed and detained by Colombian authorities, such as last year’s public case of Gerardo José Rojas Castillo. The most credible voice making such allegations come from none other than Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno. Serving as vice president under Socialist former president Rafael Correa and actually named after Vladimir Lenin, President Moreno has stated unequivocally that Ecuadorean intelligence has detected political and economic interference on the part of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. According to Moreno, Venezuelan government operatives are fomenting violence, crime and rioting to disrupt peaceful protests and provoke a strong government response. This allegation must be taken seriously by anyone with an understanding of the situation at the street level.

Los centros de investigación de Ecuador ?? y Colombia ?? detectaron la injerencia desde Venezuela de Nicolás Maduro en la violencia que azota a Colombia.

La entrevista: https://t.co/EKV4ECCna8

— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) May 5, 2021

• Old Fashioned Thuggery — The common criminal element is also undoubtedly an ingredient, specifically with regard to the looting and acts of violence. Large protests will almost always have some criminal element hoping to take advantage of the situation to loot or take advantage of police distraction to commit other crimes. While Colombian professional cyclist Jarlinson Pantano was himself protesting the fiscal reform package along with the employees of his bicycle shop, looters took advantage of his absence and completely emptied his store of its inventory of bicycles and accessories. Common criminals take advantage of large protests and busy police to commit crimes, damaging the image of the protest movement in the process.

Gracias gamines de mierda por vaciar mi tienda ??? ratas, sale uno con la ilusión de marchar pacíficamente y se encuentra con unos desadactados de mierda ?? gracias por acabar el sueño de mi familia ???

— Jarlinson Pantano (@jarlinsonpantan) April 28, 2021

These national protests are expressions of discontent that go far beyond a package of tax hikes. There is widespread discontent and distrust of the current administration on a myriad of topics. Colombia must desperately pass some form of fiscal reform to balance the national budget, but President Duque and his Centro Democratico no longer have the political capital to sell such policies to Congress and the Colombian public. The Centro Democratico party has a small but vocal base of die-hard militants, but they are now a small minority in Colombia, holding only 19 of the country’s 108 senate seats, and 32 of Colombia’s 172 seats in the house of representatives.

Sergio Fajardo, former governor of Antioquia and former mayor of Medellín. (Photo Credit: Inter-American Dialogue)

Colombia’s attorney general Francisco Barbosa, a friend of the president, has brought criminal charges against former Medellín Mayor and Governor of Antioquia, Sergio Fajardo for contract irregularities during his time as governor. Many across the political spectrum in Colombia have widely denounced the charges as a naked attempt to derail Fajardo’s presidential ambitions. Fajardo, a center-left politician and math professor came in third in the last presidential elections, setting up a runoff between Ivan Duque and former revolutionary and leftist senator Gustavo Petro. Many Colombians have expressed disdain for both the far-left ideas of Gustavo Petro, who served a disastrous term as mayor of Bogotá from 2012 to 2015, or the strident far-right authoritarianism represented by Alvaro Uribe’s (& Ivan Duque’s) Centro Democratic party.

Presidential elections take place next year. Hopefully Colombian politicians and the Colombian public can call a truce and calm tensions enough to battle through ballots in the upcoming months rather than through police bullets and the Molotov cocktails of thugs and rioters.

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Finance Colombia has reached out to Allianz for comment but so far has not received a response.

The Superintendent of Transportation, Camilo Pabón Almanza, stated regarding the fine: “This penalty is imposed because transport companies are not the only ones that can violate the Transportation Regime. Any person who, by virtue of his activity, may influence the correct provision of the public transport service, may be subject to investigation and possible sanctions from this Superintendency. We are currently conducting investigations against companies of different kinds, such as insurance companies, food producers, oil companies or merchandise companies, to name a few, that have violated the regime. We call on all businessmen to diligently review their obligations under the transportation law, so that together we continue to promote legality in the sector.”