'It's literally a war zone:' Colombians in London on the edge as deadly protests continue back home

Colombians in London, Ont., are watching in horror as Colombia marked its eighth day of deadly, anti-government protests on Wednesday. 

The demonstrations, which were originally held in opposition to a now-cancelled tax reform, have turned into a loud cry for action against police violence, poverty and inequalities in the health and education systems.

"It's been very difficult to watch," said Nataly Caicedo, a Colombian-Canadian with immediate family in the Western city of Cali, which has become a focal point for protests. 

"It's literally a war zone. We're seeing the streets militarized ... [When I spoke to my sister in Cali] you could hear the fire shots, the helicopters, the tanks shooting ... I think every Colombian is scared of what could possibly happen."

The civil unrest began last week after the government proposed a tax reform aimed at paying down the country's debt. The proposed reform caused frustration among Colombians already hit by the pandemic who feared imminent poverty if approved.

On Sunday, Colombian President Ivan Duque withdrew the tax plan and said his government would draw up another proposal, but large rallies have continued throughout the country in light of reports of deaths, sexual violence, the use of force and arbitrary detention during the protests.

As of Wednesday, nationwide demonstrations had led to at least 24 deaths, with the human rights ombudsman listing the national police or ESMAD riot squad as the entity "presumed responsible" for just under half of those deaths. 

"It's very hard to express how I feel," said Santiago Trujillo, a Londoner originally from Colombia's capital, Bogota. 

"People are trying to protest and this is the answer they're receiving and it's becoming a vicious circle that is being fuelled by anger and hate."

Social media has been inundated with videos from protestors showing police officers using excessive force during the protests and even shooting at some demonstrators point blank.

"I feel a mix of sadness, fear, disappointment and anger. But at the end, it's just the pain of being so far away and trying to find a way to help our our people back home," Trujillo said. 

On Tuesday, the United Nations urged Colombia's government to protect the rights of its protesters, saying law enforcement officers "should abide by the principles of legality, precaution and necessity of proportionality." 

Meanwhile, Duque has said drug trafficking mafias are behind looting and vandalism. He said the government will create a space for dialogue for people and will offer concrete proposals to protesters. 

"I just want to see people being able to protest and neither them nor the police being violent," Trujillo said. "At the end, no one is ever going to know who threw the first stone, the thing they will know is that everything burned." 

Trujillo and Caicedo are both working on ways to show their support to those in Colombia. 

"We're trying to show what's going on and how it seems like Colombia no longer has a democracy because people have no rights. They don't have the right to express themselves in any way, so there has to be an intervention by the international community to stop this," Caicedo said. 

"The Colombian government has no mercy for its people and they're trying to do everything they can to silence whoever is against them." 

While the ongoing pandemic has hampered plans for an in-person rally for now, they've set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for medical supplies to help attend those wounded during nightly protests. 

"There's a lot of injustice that's happening right now at home and I know that there's a big community of Colombians in London and others who can support what we're trying to do," Caicedo added.