For days they had prayed. They hugged each other, sang together and made each other hope. Colombia looked at the San Ignacio hospital in the capital, Bogotá, where pupil Dilan Cruz had been fighting death since Saturday. In front of the hospital countless people stood and feared for his life. The 18-year-old was hit by a tear gas grenade on his head during protests and mass rallies, fired by a member of the riot police Esmad. Maybe even on purpose, as in the net circulating mobile phone videos suggest.
Hundreds of candles were burning in front of the hospital, messages were written on colorful notes and posters. "Esmad Murderer" or "Stop the violence" was read on it. It seemed that the protest that had shaken the South American country for days was focused on the fate of Dilan Cruz.
On the night of Tuesday, Cruz died of his serious injuries. So the demonstrations got a name. That of a student who died because he took to the streets for a better educational policy. The victim comes from the middle of society, Dilan was a neighborhood boy, unlike the many human rights activists and indigenous people who have been murdered outdoors for years, ignored by Bogotá's urban public. They die because they are in the way of the billion dollar business of cocaine, who want to defend the property rights of the poor people against large landowners, or simply stand in the way of major construction projects.
Several hundred thousand people took to the streets in the days before. The overwhelming majority are young Colombians who are calling for a change of course by the conservative president Iván Duque: in social policy, in peace policy, in economic policy. They want a different society.
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Whether the young president is in a position to understand these demands, let alone implement them, remains to be seen. Duque is considered a deputy to the current state, as governor of ex-President Álvaro Uribe, hated by left-wing Colombia and still influential, who ruled the country between 2002 and 2010, bundling and steering the right-wing conservative, some right-wing forces like a super-father.
Despite being only 43 years old, Duque looks like a politician from the past, from the age of the civil war that ended three years ago with the left-wing ex-guerilla Farc. He still sees social movements as a prolonged arm of the rebels, which should continue to fight. The young president stands for old Colombia. The popular cartoonist "Matador" draws him because of his squat figure as a little pig who pats helplessly through the world events. "Porky" is what his critics call him.
The case of Dilan Cruz is symptomatic of the Colombian government's handling of social unrest, anger against reprisals, and political ignorance. "We are no longer afraid," shouts a group of young demonstrators in the "Park of Hippies" in the center of Bogotá. Thousands of people join in their proclamation. Fear, panic, oppression, these are the defining words of this protest. The Esmad police unit responsible for the suppression of riots is the declared target of the critics.
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Youth in Colombia: rage on Iván DuqueStudent Franziska, who drums her despair, sums up the mood among the demonstrators: "We demand social justice, a fair minimum wage and an end to violence." And because she and her comrades no longer trust Duque to stand up for it, she calls for his resignation.
At least, the president is trying to react quickly to this rising anger. Tuesday morning, a few hours after Dilan's death, Duque met with representatives of social movements, unions, and the organizers of the ongoing general strike. He wanted to open spaces for a dialogue in which everyone could participate, he said. At the same time police helicopters flew over the city. The mood remains tense, because Duques critics do not want to be put off with mere promises: they demand results. The organizers of the strike announced that they would call for an indefinite strike if necessary, if nothing changes. Since Monday night, since the death of Dilan Cruz, it's finally not just about concessions, it's about a completely different Colombia.