The tax reform is dead. Please do not let it kill more of us.
At least 7 confirmed deaths and hundreds injured during three days of protests against the government's tax reform proposal in Cali. Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina publicly demanded withdrawal of the reform, citing constitutional right to protest and calling for calm deliberation instead.
- At least 7 confirmed deaths and hundreds injured during three days of protests in Cali, April 28-30, 2021
- Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina publicly demanded President Duque withdraw the tax reform proposal
- Government deployed 700+ soldiers, 500 riot police, 1,800 police officers, 60 motorcycles, and 2 helicopters to militarize the city
- One sexual assault by ESMAD (riot police) reported; looting and property destruction occurred during protests
Cali's mayor calls on President Duque to withdraw the tax reform proposal after three days of violent protests that have killed at least 7 people and injured hundreds in Colombia's capital.
By the third day of protests in Cali, the city had become a place of fracture. What began as organized opposition to a national tax reform proposal had spilled into the streets in ways that left bodies behind—at least seven confirmed dead, hundreds wounded, and a calculus of damage that extended far beyond the numbers. The mayor of Colombia's third-largest city, Jorge Iván Ospina, found himself in the position of having to ask his own president to step back from the very policy that had ignited the unrest.
The tax reform itself had become a lightning rod. President Iván Duque's administration had presented it to Congress as a fiscal measure, but in Cali and across the country, it landed differently—as a threat to working people already stretched thin. By April 28, when the protests began in earnest, the city's streets filled with demonstrators. By April 30, those streets had become scenes of chaos. Videos circulated online showing automatic weapons fire echoing through neighborhoods. Storefronts were looted. Buses burned. The MIO, the city's mass transit system, saw stations vandalized and vehicles torched. Property damage spread across both public and private buildings.
But beneath the disorder lay a harder reality. Senator Wilson Arias, representing the Democratic Pole party, documented what he saw unfolding: seven deaths confirmed, seven more awaiting verification, and at least one sexual assault carried out by members of the ESMAD—the mobile riot police units deployed to manage the crowds. His statement on social media carried the weight of someone watching a situation spiral beyond control, a plea for solidarity among citizens when institutional protections seemed to have failed.
Ospina, the city's elected leader, made his position clear in a video released through the municipal government's official channels. "The tax reform is dead," he said directly to Duque. "Please do not let it kill more of us. Withdraw it." It was a stark formulation—the policy itself already defeated in the court of public opinion, yet still exacting a price in blood. The mayor had been consistent in his messaging from the unified command center coordinating the city's response: the constitutional right to protest cannot be suspended, he insisted. Citizens have the right to march, to voice dissent, to make their grievances heard. That right, he argued, should be honored, not crushed.
He called for a different path forward. If the government would simply withdraw the reform and set aside the decisions that had provoked such anger, those matters could be debated later, in calmer moments, with actual deliberation rather than desperation. The implication was clear: continuing to push the policy forward while bodies lay in the streets was not governance—it was something else entirely.
The federal government's response came through Defense Minister Diego Molano. After a security council meeting held in Cali itself, the decision was made to militarize the city. More than 700 soldiers would be deployed, alongside 500 members of the ESMAD, 1,800 police officers, 60 motorcycles, and two helicopters. Molano's statement—"We will not rest until Cali sleeps peacefully"—framed the operation as restoration of order, a return to normalcy. But the normalcy being restored would be one imposed from above, not negotiated from within. The question hanging over the city was whether force could accomplish what dialogue had not, or whether it would only deepen the fracture.
Citas Notables
The tax reform is dead. Please do not let it kill more of us. Withdraw it.— Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina, in a video statement to President Duque
The right to mobilization and protest is a constitutional right that cannot be violated. The government should withdraw the reform so these decisions can be deliberated in calmer moments.— Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina, from the unified command center
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did the mayor feel compelled to speak directly to the president rather than work through normal channels?
Because three days of protests had already killed seven people. At that point, normal channels feel like a luxury you can't afford. Ospina was trying to break through the noise—to make it impossible for Duque to ignore that the cost of the policy was being paid in lives.
He kept emphasizing the constitutional right to protest. Was he defending the protesters or trying to distance himself from the violence?
Both, probably. He was saying the right to march is real and protected, but also that he understood why people were angry. He wasn't condemning the protesters wholesale. He was saying: listen to them, withdraw the policy, and then we can talk about what comes next.
The government responded by sending soldiers and riot police. Did that seem like they were hearing him?
No. It signaled the opposite. Molano's deployment was a show of force, not a concession. It said the government would manage the situation through control, not by changing course. That's a very different answer to what Ospina was asking for.
What about the looting and the burning of buses? Doesn't that complicate the mayor's position?
It does, but it also doesn't erase the core issue. Yes, some people used the protests as cover for vandalism and theft. That's real. But it doesn't change the fact that the tax reform sparked the initial anger, or that people died. The government could have addressed the policy and avoided all of it.
One senator mentioned a sexual assault by riot police. How does that fit into the picture?
It's a sign that the response itself became part of the problem. You send in riot squads to manage crowds, and suddenly you have not just the original grievance but new violations to reckon with. It's why Ospina kept saying the right to protest has to be respected—because the alternative is what was already happening.