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 On the morning of May 5th 2021, Lucas Villa, a student protester, approached anti-riot police in Pereira, a city located in the foothills of the Colombian Andes and nestled in the centre of the country's coffee-growing Axis.

The bearded student is seen approaching two rows of stone-faced anti-riot police before shaking their hands and touching their shoulders as a sign of peace and reconciliation. A week of anti-government protests had rocked the nation, and tensions were high, so an on-looker decided to record the event. Millions of people would later view this video.

Villa's actions that day epitomized his non-violent pedagogical approach to social justice that included elements of Daoism, Judaism and Indigenous knowledge and formed during his years travelling around Latin America.

That evening as Villa and other peaceful protesters gathered on a major viaduct, a motorcyclist pulled up and shot Villa eight times. When he was declared dead six days later, the thirty-seven-year-old activist had already become a national symbol of resistance.

The protests began in late April in reaction to a proposed bill that would have raised taxes on utilities such as water and electricity and disproportionately affected the poor and middle classes. Colombia is Latin America's second-most unequal country after Honduras, a situation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has shrunk the economy by 6.8 per cent and pushed 3.5 million into poverty.

President Iván Duque scrapped the proposal just days later, but long-standing economic and political grievances had already forced the protests into a larger movement. 

The country's security forces, including ESMAD, the Colombian riot control unit, responded with heavy-handed violence that has left 74 dead, according to local NGO, Indepaz. There have also been 3,700 documented cases of police brutality towards protesters. Cali, a city in southwestern Colombia where the poverty rate is 67% higher than the rest of the country, has seen the highest level of unrest.

In part, the violent response was a hangover from the civil war when the Colombian National Police worked alongside the military in combating guerilla fighters and drug cartels. The strength of the Colombian security forces is also a legacy of Plan Colombia initially implemented by the United States as part of the nation's war on drugs. Since the late 1990s, the US has flooded the nation's security forces with funding, equipment and military advisors. 

Several videos capturing incidents of police brutality were circulated during the early days of the protests. However, when footage emerged showing the charismatic Villa dancing and singing at rallies alongside graphic imagery from his assassination later that day, they struck a chord with protesters across the country.

It wasn't long before the image of Villa, with his fist in the air and red bandana wrapped around his wrist, adorned murals all over Colombia. "I don't know if the universe conspired in our favour because everything he was doing was filmed that day," says his sister, Sidssy Uribe Vásquez. "The Colombian media had portrayed the protests as a conflict, but Lucas' acts of kindness, love and generosity was able to show this non-violent aspect of the protests that Colombians are for".

Lucas Villa's murder at the hands of plainclothed assassins on motorcycles also pointed to a worrying re-emergence of far-right paramilitary groups that flourished during the worst years of guerrilla insurgency and drug trafficking. As similar reports have emerged across the country, fears have grown that these groups are colluding with the national security forces.

Sidssy Uribe Vásquez believes that all evidence points to a pre-meditated attack on Lucas Villa. The Cesar Gaviria Trujillo Viaduct where the shooting occurred was a crucial cargo transport hub connecting the north with the country's south and housed a small police station. However, at the time of his murder, the station was uncrewed, and there was no official police presence around the protesters. According to Sidssy Uribe Vásquez and protesters at the scene, the electricity was cut minutes before Lucas and other protesters were shot, severing power to the security cameras positioned all around the junction. A laser point was then seen on Lucas Villa seconds before the fatal shots. According to Sidssy Uribe Vásquez, the particular colour of the laser, purple, is not readily available to civilians.

Lucas Villa's three sisters and brother have since received threats due to their continued activism. On one occasion, when they were en route to meet a human rights organization, a man approached them on the street and said, "stop, or we will stop you". Other incidents include motorcyclists taking pictures of their houses and men with police helmets following family members in public. According to Sidssy Uribe Vásquez, they are not alone in this experience "this is happening to hundreds and hundreds of families, but we have decided to be very vocal about it".

After Lucas Villa's death, Duque promised that those responsible would face "the full weight of the law", but according to Sidssy Uribe Vásquez, the family has not received any substantial information.

This year's unrest is in many ways a continuation of similar nationwide mass protests in 2019 that saw 200,000 people take to the streets over proposed austerity measures. However, these protests soon developed into a broader expression of discontent with the government. Sidssy Uribe Vásquez explains that the unrest is not just about specific grievances but also long-standing, entrenched inequalities. "You have over 200 years of certain families with all the power," she says " this is a fight to bring them down". Juliana Aquadelo, 18, explains why she joined the protests in Bogota; "this is about leaving individualism behind and pursuing a real, meaningful, and fair society in which it's not just the few who are comfortable while everything around them collapses and the people go without food".

Paramilitary groups have also been linked to the reemergence of another tactic deployed during the civil conflict: disappearances. A week after the protests began the 87 people were reported missing by the Ombudsman's Office, the national agency charged with overseeing civil and human rights protection.

There have also been over a hundred cases of gender-based violence reported by the Ombudsman's Office during the anti-government protests. In addition, Temblores, a local NGO, has received 28 reports of protesters being sexually abused by security force members, including being forced to strip naked, groped, and raped.

Students and young people frustrated at the government and scared for their future have been at the forefront of the demonstrations and borne the brunt of police violence. In a video widely circulated on social media, taken on the first day of the protests in Cali, Marcelo Agredo Inchima, 17, is seen kicking a police officer on a motorbike; as he runs away, the officer fatally shoots him in the back.

The countless reports of police violence against young people left Juliana Aquadelo afraid to attend alone; "I have gone to the protests with my father", she explains, " that way I feel safer, and there is a higher certainty that I will make it home compared to going alone or with friends".

The actions of the Colombian security forces have resulted in human rights groups calling for the suspension of foreign assistance for the Colombian police. The US government is currently considering a new 1,193 million SEK aid request. The British government has provided Colombia's security forces with 743 million SEK over five years as part of the Conflict, Security, and Stability Fund and Sweden, since 2013, has provided the Colombian police force with 42 million SEK.

Negotiations between the Colombian government and the national Strike committee, an umbrella organization made up of unions and other civil society organizations, broke down over a proposed pre-agreement covering basic income and healthcare issues.

Colombia's government have since announced that a new law that would offer human rights training for police, a new complaints system and expanded disciplinary standards for police officers.

The country is currently experiencing the third wave of Covid-19, with more than 25,000 cases reported each day and ICU occupancy above 97% in the country’s three largest cities Bogotá, Medellín and Cali. Protest leaders had announced a temporary pause on mass marches following advice from public health officials. However, on June 29th, demonstrations occurred in various cities around the country. Police installations around Medellin and Pereira were attacked, and protesters demolished a statue of Christopher Colombus in the city of Barranquilla located on the Atlantic Coast.

The latest wave of protests comes only days after a helicopter transporting Duque was attacked near Colombia's border with Venezuela.