Tag Archives: blockades

With fuel and food scarce, people in Colombia’s Cali ask for negotiation

By Luis Jaime Acosta

CALI, Colombia (Reuters) – Residents of the Colombian city of Cali, the epicenter of protests against the government of Ivan Duque, are struggling under the weight of demonstrators’ road blockades, which have tripled some foods prices and made gasoline scarce.

The city – usually known for its love of salsa dancing – has had more confirmed deaths than any other during the demonstrations, which began in late April, as well as some looting.

Residents say it is urgent agreements be reached between protesters and the government so more food and fuel shipments can enter the city and to end the protests – the longest and most violent demonstrations in Colombia’s recent history.

“We are living a critical moment,” said Andres Bolanos, 28, as he waited in a long line to fill the tank of his motorcycle.

“The two sides need to make an agreement so there’s a good humanitarian corridor.”

Some gasoline lines stretched 2 kilometers (1.25 miles), while other gas stations, not able to get in shipments, were shuttered.

Cars are limited to 4 gallons (15 liters) and motorcycles to 2, and owners can fill up only on certain days according to license plate number.

Those supermarkets that are not closed have conspicuously empty shelves, even as prices rise for remaining food products.

“The impact has been total scarcity and price rises,” said grocery store owner Diana Falla, 36. “We got what we could and brought it in ourselves because sometimes purveyors don’t arrive.”

The cost of box of 30 eggs was up to 18,000 pesos, about $4.80, from a previous price of 12,000 pesos, and a pound of potatoes has tripled in price, to the equivalent of $0.80.

Falla said she has stopped selling many vegetables and fruits because supplier prices are just too high.

“You can’t get plantain, potato, chicken,” said 72-year-old housewife Clara Grijalba, as she stood outside Falla’s shop. “Please lift (the blockades), we can’t go on like this.”

Protesters, who originally called marches against a now-canceled tax plan, have expanded demands to include a basic income, an end to police violence and education and jobs for young people, among other things.

The death toll from protests is disputed. The human rights ombudsman is investigating 41 civilian deaths, while the attorney general’s office has confirmed 14.

At Puerto Resistencia, a working class area that has become a symbol of protests, demonstrators asked residents for calm.

“They don’t have food, they have shortages, but lots of people live with daily shortages,” said Elizabeth Serna, 40, leader of a blockade manned mostly by young people.

Blockades will continue until there is a deal with the government, she said.

“They must have patience because we’ll win this fight for everyone.”

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Dan Grebler)

In night of violence, Greeks try to block access to migrant camp building sites

ATHENS (Reuters) – Police in riot gear threw teargas and fired water cannon at Greek islanders as they tried to prevent access to construction sites for new migrant detention centers by setting fires, hurling flares and blockading the gates.

Locals on Lesbos and Chios are worried that the centers, which would replace temporary camps with open access, will leave the islands permanently overcrowded.

Vowing to press on with the building work, authorities say closed centers will offer greater public safety and limit potential health risks, particularly given the potential spread of the coronavirus in other countries.

“It is clearly evident that matters such as the coronavirus can be dealt with swiftly and effectively in a closed facility and not an anarchic, open facility which is a health time bomb,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said.

There are currently no cases in Greece.

Locals run amid tear gas smoke as they try to prevent the arrival of a ferry carrying riot police reinforcements sent for monitoring the creation of a new closed migrant detention centre, at the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, Greece, February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Elias Marcou

The authorities moved to send police reinforcements to the islands to deal with the protests, prompting more clashes as islanders tried to prevent the arrival of the ferries.

Condemning what he called a “day of shame”, Costas Moutzouris, governor of the northern Aegean region, branded the deployment “extremely aggressive” and announced a decision by local authorities there to hold a 24 hour general strike on Wednesday against the actions of the central government, the Athens News Agency reported.

Witnesses said about 500 people attempted to block the unloading of heavy machinery overnight to break ground at the construction site on Lesbos.

Clashes between protesters and police broke out and fires burned on the streets and in the roadside brushland, ignited by the flares. Similar tensions were reported on Chios, where residents also say they are bearing the burden of the refugee crisis.

In addition to Lesbos and Chios, Greek authorities plan to construct closed detention facilities on Samos, Kos and Leros. The islands are close to Turkey, from where thousands of asylum seekers head to Europe each year.

Hundreds of thousands of people crossed into Europe from Turkey via Greece in 2015 and 2016 before a deal brokered by the European Union limited the flow. There has, however, been a resurgence in arrivals since September 2019.

The overcrowded Moria camp on Lesbos accommodates more than 18,000 people in conditions aid organizations say are appalling.

The conservative government has taken a markedly tougher stance towards migration compared to the previous leftist government, issuing a tender for the construction of a floating fence to deter asylum seekers arriving by sea and introducing faster processing procedures that could increase deportations.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Alison Williams)

Israel strikes Hamas in Gaza, calling attack response to rocket fire

A Palestinian fisherman walks on a beach in the southern Gaza Strip June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli aircraft attacked a Hamas target in Gaza on Thursday after a Palestinian rocket strike, the Israeli military said, in the first serious cross-border flare-up since a surge in fighting last month.

The latest hostilities followed Israel’s closure of offshore waters to Gaza fisherman on Wednesday in what it said was a response to incendiary balloons launched across the frontier that caused fires in fields in southern Israel this week.

In a statement, the military said fighter planes attacked “underground infrastructure” in a compound belonging to the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of injuries.

The military said it was responding to a rocket fired from Gaza overnight that was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

In two days of heavy fighting in early May, projectiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel, local health officials said, and Israeli strikes killed 21 Palestinians, over half of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.

A truce mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations ended that round of violence.

Some two million Palestinians live in Gaza, whose economy has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’s rival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop arms reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the small coastal enclave.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Gareth Jones)