Young activists are being detained just days before elections as part of the Ministry of Defense’ “Plan Democracy.” Many are saying that the plan is really an attempted “preemptive coup” to prevent a Center-Left victory, and to crush popular movements who might take to the streets in the event of massive fraud. Nine young people detained in Cali have declared a hunger strike until they are freed.

Please click here to demand freedom for young activists arrested in pre-election raids in Colombia

Are We Witnessing a Preventive Coup in Colombia?

By James Patrick Jordan

Click HERE to read on website and to see Spanish version

Activists from Colombia’s major cities are being rounded up and detained as part of “Plan Democracy”, a strategy described by Jorge Luís Vargas Valencia, General Director of the Colombian National Police, at a June 14, 2022 press conference.  Vargas said that police were being put in a “maximum state of alert,” because of numerous threats of violence on Sunday’s national presidential elections. Without producing any evidence for this claim, Vargas announced that police would be arresting front line (primera línea) activists on charges stemming from last year’s National Strike. The next day, police arrested at least 26 young people, including twelve in Bucaramanga, nine in Cali, and five in Bogotá. Vargas also mentioned the cities of Medellín, Popayan, and Pereira as places similar raids would take place. This morning, June 16, the nine detainees in Cali declared a hunger strike until they are set free.

In Colombia, the police are under the direction of the Ministry of Defense, and, thus, an extension of the Colombian Armed Forces. Minister of Defense, Diego Molano Aponte said that 320,000 members of the armed forces would be deployed throughout the nation as part of Plan Democracy. Of these, 80,000 will be located in “strategic points” of particular concern.  According to Molano,

“The Plan Democracy in this third phase has deployed 320,000 men in two weeks to guarantee the elections, so that the Colombians can vote freely, without fear and without threats. The second proposal is to maintain the security of the 12 thousand polling places, before, during, and after the elections.”

However, the vast majority of threats and acts of violence are coming not from young front line activists from the National Strike, but from paramilitaries and persons associated with Colombia’s right wing. This electoral season has been the most violent in 12 years. It has also been marked by a plethora of irregularities and acts of fraud, so much so that the March congressional elections had to be revised after, among other things, many polling places registered zero votes for the Center-Left Pacto Histórico (Historic Pact), a statistical impossibility. Colombian Army General Eduardo Zapateiro, in violation of the constitution, made a public declaration against the Pacto Historico presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro, yet still has not been disciplined. There have been multiple claims of fraud both in the March elections and the first round of presidential elections on May 29. Allegations of fraud and irregularities against the Petro campaign and the Pacto Histórico have been made without evidence to back them. More evident are the irregularities that are being alleged to the Colombian Right wing.

Rubiel Vargas (no relation to Police Director General Vargas), of the Permanent Committee for Human Rights (CPDH, by its Spanish initials), suggested that we may be witnessing a “preventive coup” happening in plain sight against the possibility of a Center-Left victory. When asked about this, and about the detentions of young activists, he pointed out,

“All this is against the movement backing the Pacto Histórico. The detentions are all of young people who participated in social protests, what are called the Primera Linea (Front Line). This so-called Plan Democracy is a plan to pressure and intimidate. The majority supporting Petro are young people. These are the targets of the plan. As for the armed persons who assaulted participants in the National Strike, none of them have been detained, because these are the ones called the “gente de bien” (“the good people”). The “gente de bién” are people who in some way or another share the thinking of paramilitaries, even narco-traffickers. Side by side with the public forces, there are videos, photos of them firing on protesters. These come from many protests, and these attacks left many people dead. The ones who committed these homicides are not arrested. On the other hand, the young people, protesting against neoliberal economics, against the entire system—these are the only ones who are detained. They are also mostly Petro supporters. Plan Democracy is a plan to promote fear in the sense that if Petro does not win, and people protest, there will be violent acts against Petro supporters and protestors. And they will blame the young people instead of those who are really assaulting the people.”

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