BOGOTA – Colombia’s small farmers launched a nationwide protest Monday to demand that the government comply with reforms agreed last year.
Colombian producers of coffee, potatoes, rice, tomatoes and other crops say the government has failed to alleviate indebtedness and regulate prices for inputs like fertilizer.
The government argues it has been working on the reforms though some can be implemented only over the long term.
Victor Correa, spokesman for the Dignidad Cafetera coffee growers’ protest movement, said peaceful protests were taking place in 15 of Colombia’s 32 provinces. Participation this time was likely to be smaller because a near 70 percent increase in coffee prices since August has soothed the sector’s anger, he said.
The authorities said a heavy police and army presence had prevented the protesters from setting up road blocks.
But local media reported that roads had been blocked in Boyaca department and in the coffee-producing region of Huila.
Agriculture Minister Ruben Dario Lizarralde said on Monday the government will respect the farmers’ decision to protest, as long as they did not block any roads or highways.
According to Lizarralde, the government has earmarked a record- high budget for the Ministry of Agriculture and tried to meet the commitments it made to farmers in August 2013, to end weeks of violent protests in which at least five people died.
This new nationwide protest comes at a critical moment for the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who is seeking a second four-year term in elections on May 25.
Small-scale farmers have been demanding greater government subsidies to help them compete with an increasingly open domestic market resulting from Colombia’s free trade agreements with the United States and Europe.
The farmers also complained that rising fuel and production costs had turned small-scale farming into a loss-making business.
