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May 31st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Protesters in Colombia’s largest port city Buenaventura, on Tuesday, demanded that the government create a public fund to address the most pressing public needs as part of attempts to find a solution to end the civil strike in the city.
Protesters in Buenaventura tabled eight points they urge the government to help address. One of the most important of these eight points is the demand for access to potable water.
What may come as a surprise for many international observers, access to potable water in Colombia’s biggest port city is only available for few hours per day. Another issue is healthcare; In line with the country’s much-criticized, inefficient and often corrupt health care system, the city’s hospital has been closed for two years, and it isn’t planned to be open again until the end of 2017.
Buenaventura protest spokesperson Narcilo Rocero said that once the government agrees to the fund’s creation, the civic strike, which has lasted 16 days and shut down the country’s largest port, could be lifted immediately.
The strike was launched almost three weeks ago when tens of thousand of locals in the Pacific port city took to the street to protest decades of neglect and abandonment on the part of the National government. The strike gained additional traction because the country’s teachers are on strike too, leading to marches with some 500,000 – 600,000 protesters in the streets in cities throughout the country.
Last week, hundreds of Buenaventura residents, tires of a reluctant government and broken promises, blocked the entrance to the city’s port, refusing to allow any truck to come either in or out, effectively laying an economic siege on the country.
Widespread protests have not shown signs of calming down even though the mayor’s office, in vain, issued a decree declaring a halt to public demonstrations. On Monday, a video featuring local artists “Buenaventura No Se Rinde (Buenaventura doesn’t surrender)” was released. The video has since gone viral.
Buenaventura port generates about $1.8 billion in revenue for the Colombian government each year. However, while potable water is only available for few hours per day and the hospital is closed – among other symptoms of severe mismanagement – only 3% of that money ends up in the city of Buenaventura. Half of Buenaventura’s 400,000 residents have no public access to safe drinking water. The city also suffers from extreme drug trafficking and drug related violence. Corruption is even more endemic in the city than in most other parts of the country. The city’s three former mayors are in prison for corruption, the current mayor is investigated, and even the former prison director is in prison for corruption.
Extreme poverty is also widespread. It was thus not surprising that some of the protesters started looting. The situation did not become less tense when police, on May 19, opened fire at looting and rioting crowds of protesters.
A/N – nsnbc 31.05.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/05/31/colombia-protesters-in-buenaventura-demand-public-fund-to-meet-pressing-needs/
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