Colombian unions take to streets against De la Espriella

Hugo Castro

21 hours ago

2 min read

Trade unionists, teachers, students and social movements demonstrated across Colombia on October 14 against the direction of President Abelardo de la Espriella's government. The mobilizations came amid disputes over education, public services, indigenous rights and new rules governing how police may disperse protests.

Fecode, the national teachers' federation, had called a demonstration in Bogotá, while marches were planned in Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga and other cities. Organizers also raised concerns about school rebuilding and access to teachers' healthcare.

The demonstrations followed government changes to police protocols that give officers wider discretion to move against roadblocks and demonstrations involving vandalism or interruptions to essential services. Officials say the changes preserve the right to peaceful protest. Rights advocates fear they will lower the threshold for force and weaken the expectation of dialogue.

Colombia remembers what repression costs

The debate is not theoretical. Colombia's 2021 protests were marked by deaths, allegations of excessive police force and unresolved questions of accountability. Broad powers to disperse crowds therefore carry a history that demands scrutiny.

Another archival photograph of union and social movement demonstrators in Bogotá during the 2025 national strike

Teachers and union organizers frame their struggle around conditions in the classroom, access to public healthcare and the protection of labor rights. Their demands are not answered by calling demonstrations threats to order; they require budgets, negotiations and functioning public institutions.

De la Espriella's administration argues that movement on roads cannot prevent ordinary people from reaching food, medicine and work. That is a legitimate public concern. But it does not give a government an unlimited mandate to redefine disruptive protest as an offense against public safety.

The central democratic test is whether the authorities allow peaceful organizing and proportionate public dissent even when those demonstrations are directed against the government. Colombia's labor movement is demanding that the right to protest remain real rather than merely formal.

Sources: El País Colombia, October 14, 2026 — https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2026-10-14/marchas-del-14-de-octubre-en-colombia-horarios-puntos-de-encuentro-y-motivos-de-las-protestas-contra-de-la-espriella.html ; AP, October 14, 2026 — https://apnews.com/article/5cb1f6168daabea96f4b332004be2d23 ; La Jornada, October 15 — https://www.jornada.com.mx/2026/10/15/

PHOTO CREDITS — Both photographs: ProtoplasmaKid / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, May 2025. They show previous Colombian mobilizations, not the October 14, 2026 demonstrations.

About Pamphlets

Pamphlets is an independent, collectively operated political news and analysis publication. We cover America, Eurasia, Africa, China and the Global South from a socialist and anti-imperialist perspective. Articles use editorial pen names or the collective Pamphlets Staff byline. The named identities are editorial voices, not claims of separately staffed overseas bureaus or independent correspondent identities. Portraits are illustrative.

Editorial pen names: Gianna Mao, Carlitos Marquez, Hugo Castro, Luigi Vanzetti, Rosa Liebknecht, Vladimir Derzhinky, Pamela Fuentes, Layla Kanafani and Amara Sankara. Cartoons: TAJO.

Editorial standards and corrections

Our goal is to distinguish reporting, analysis and opinion; verify material claims against identifiable sources; cite or link original documents where feasible; and identify archival or illustrative photographs. We correct substantive errors and aim to explain material corrections in the affected article. Readers can raise factual concerns through the official channels listed on our Links page. Editorial perspective does not replace source verification.

Pamphlets respects your privacy. Our website and service providers may process basic technical data, including IP addresses, browser details, page requests and cookies, to operate and secure the site. Information you voluntarily submit is used to respond to you.

Embedded content and linked sites may have their own privacy practices. If advertising is enabled, third-party vendors including Google may use cookies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites. Google and its partners may use advertising cookies to personalize and measure ads. Ad providers may place or read cookies or use web beacons, IP addresses and similar identifiers to collect information during ad serving. You can control personalized Google advertising at Google Ads Settings and opt out of some third-party personalized advertising at aboutads.info.

To request access, correction or deletion of information you have submitted, contact Pamphlets through our Contact page. Some technical data may be retained by service providers or as required by law.