In the case of Colombia, protests also began in November 2019, when many sectors of civil society mobilised to call for a national strike. Her interior minister Arturo Murillo claimed that they had been found with Venezuelan police uniforms and declared that: ‘ We are not going to allow sedition in this country – it is not right that destabilise other countries with terror.’
After the right-wing president Jeanine Áñez took power four Venezuelans were detained during the protests. In November 2019, protests began in Bolivia after controversial results in the presidential elections. Protestors fill the renamed Plaza de la Dignidad in Santiago de Chile, November 2019 (image: Wikimedia Commons) Amid the political instability, Piñera and the Chilean media suggested, in accordance with intelligence reports, that protests were infiltrated by Venezuelan migrants who supported the Maduro regime. Protesters demanded that the government make structural changes in privatisation policies and neoliberal measures in the economy. In the same month in Chile, social mobilisation began after President Piñera announced an increase in the metro fare.
The former Interior Minister, María Paula Romo, declared that most of them were Venezuelans. In response, many protestors were detained. For instance, in October 2019, many protesters took to the streets in Ecuador demonstrating against the economic measures introduced by the former president, Lenin Moreno. In this post, I explore how Venezuelan migrants in countries throughout the region have been depicted as scapegoats for the protests and how political discourse has been used to stigmatise opponents in order to maintain power in the face of political instability.įirst, South American governments affected by recent protests have constructed a political narrative holding migrants responsible for the chaos and instability, labelling them as instigators of crime and insecurity. In an effort to seek stability and order they have also further criminalised and stigmatised migrants, accusing them of being a security threat and a source of the political unrest. In response, they have deployed a disproportionate use of violence and repression, using armed forces to prevent their states from collapsing.
This increased dissatisfaction has put governments under pressure. Key among their reasons for protesting has been their anger at their states’ neoliberal economic measures. Colombians, Chileans, Ecuadorians, Peruvians and Bolivians have taken to the streets to challenge their governments.
#El guerrero pacifico reflexion series
Since 2019 a series of public protests and demonstrations have swept across South America.
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