The strike called for November 21 has channeled a historical social unrest whose depth has been continuously ignored by the various national governments and led to a protest that must be addressed.
We regret the violence against anyone, regardless of whether they are protesters or members of the public force. However, we believe that it is necessary to understand that the relations between different social sectors, the private sector, the media, public forces and authorities do not happen on equal terms. Public authorities will only be legitimate if their actions are unequivocally directed towards the protection and guarantee of fundamental rights.
The Government has promised to create “a technological platform” to open a dialogue about the problems it considers to be the heart of the protest. Technology is useful to facilitate and support citizen participation processes to the extent that it is part of a broader strategy and not as the main response to the demands of the protest. The technological platform will be insufficient if it wants to reach 20 million disconnected people, precisely the population that is at the center of the social demands.
Internet and technology platforms are not going to solve the problems by themselves to generate a serious political dialogue. Different factors have weakened the ability to build a local political base to channel demands: the murder of social leaders, the precarious situation in which many people live and which do not leave them time or energy to be part of a dialogue, job insecurity, and the clientelistic and corruption dynamics. These and other reasons prevent many people and communities from participating in the development of political agendas that reflect their interests. Do not fool yourself thinking that a platform will replace the spaces that have been systematically and violently closed for those who are demonstrating today in the streets.
In this context, we propose the following points to follow the discussion that has caused the national strike:
- Democracy is exercised every day and not exclusively every time there are elections. The Political Constitution model of 91 made important progress towards a model of participatory democracy. In a scenario like that, a technology platform can help to communicate with some groups. However, internet cannot be the main dialogue channel in a country where half of the people do not even have access to it and the other half faces significant gaps.
- It is evident that the training in human rights of the public force has not been sufficient to guarantee the protection of fundamental rights. A thorough review and training adjustments are required to determine the reasons why it has failed to make changes that prevent further abuse and excesses. It is also time to rethink the militaristic orientation of the National Police and express the need for it to be a civil body. The first step is to evaluate the affiliation of this entity to the Ministry of Defense.
- In the days before November 21, the Government demonstrated that it is able to use all its communication channels to repeat the same messages and line up behind a slogan to weaken the National Strike. Given the need to open the national dialogue, government communications should avoid orchestrating such deaf strategies and think beyond social networks.