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Mayday in Medellin

It was all supposed to start at 8.30 am, but when we arrived we could already feel a heavy atmosphere building up because of the speech making by local union bureaucrats which held up the start of the march for at least an hour. In any case there was a real air of combativity: the young supporters of the CAP (Peoples Armed Commandos) were there all masked up, which gave the march a wonderful whiff of insurrection about it. From the start the police weren't feeling too friendly, and the CAP gave them what they wanted - a volley of small fireworks. Further along, passing the main police station, the bombardment intensified with stones as well. The atmosphere was really charged because a few blocks back the police had cordoned off a major department store as if it belonged to them. Someone then had the brilliant idea not to throw stones at the police and incendiary devices at the buildings, but incendiary devices at the buildings and stones at the windows of all the business premises. Clashes between the demonstrators and police became more frequent as the march continued, with police baton charges. The atmosphere of the last few days had fired people up, because parliament was about to approve the so-called 'National Development Plan', which proposes 'fiscal austerity ' aimed at reducing state expenditure (while the president and his henchman take foreign holidays).

The clashes reached their climax at Berrio Park, where the march was supposed to end, with endless baton attacks (of which I had a taste), petards being thrown and happy tunes being sung to the police ("The police are also exploited / that's why they march alongside us!" "murderers!", etc). Basically there was a festive atmosphere which ended with who knows how many injured, disappeared or even dead demonstrators. Now calm has returned: the autodefensas (name which the paramilitaries call themselves) groups kidnap, disappear and kill people, the guerrillas kidnap, make propaganda and strengthen their authoritarian military structure, the army is upset - more than half of it's top brass resigned in solidarity with the Minister of Defence and then went back to work in exchange for who knows what perks, the president keeps travelling and has just come back from Canada etc.

Local press reports afterwards noted that the march followed a similar pattern to the last five years, that it was 'infiltrated' by 'rebellious young people' and that this time round 'the intense heat and length of the speeches at the start caused bad feeling among some demonstrators', resulting in 'unknown persons' disconnecting the sound system of the speakers and thus sabotaging the final rally.

The CAP are a relatively new and independent urban militia group operating in the city who profess a Marxist-Leninist ideology and sympathy for the national guerrilla movement (FARC/ELN) while remaining outside their structures. They grew out of the generalised militias movement of the 80s in poor neighbourhoods of Medellin, which span off in different directions in the 90s.