Hunger protests in Colombia as millions denied access to food

Hunger protests are increasing across Colombia as millions of people find themselves unable to obtain food due to the anti-coronavirus lockdown.

In the capital, Bogota, scores of people demonstrated outside the office of Mayor Claudia Lopez on Wednesday, demanding that the authorities urgently deliver aid that has been promised to the most vulnerable.

Local community leader Angel Mendez said: “The mayor announced today that she delivered 50 percent of the aid, but when we talk to the people, none of them has received anything and nor have those who received something been registered.”

Colombia has recorded 4,356 coronavirus cases and 206 deaths. It imposed lockdown measures affecting all towns and cities last month.

But with millions of people unable to access food due to the restrictions, there have been riots and looting across the country.

Poor and vulnerable people, unable to comply with government instructions to stay at home, also resort to scavenging the streets for bread and other food to feed their families.

More than five million Colombians with no fixed monthly income and who depend on the informal economy are now struggling to survive. Many are pleading for help by hanging red cloths outside the windows of their homes.

Patricia Hurtado, from the Ciudad Bolivar neighborhood of Bogota, was one of those at Wednesday’s protest.

“We look like skinny cows, we no longer have the breath to walk. We are dying not from the virus but from hunger. We have not seen anything of what they promised us, we are suffering hunger,” she said.

The government recently extended the emergency lockdown measures until May 11.