Several hundred thousand peasants, truck drivers, artisanal miners and others went on strike in 19 provinces in Colombia Aug. 19. More than 15,000 police tried to dismantle 37 roadblocks set up by farmers and more than 175 protesters have been arrested. Above, march in Tunja supporting strike.

Farmers are demanding government price supports and lower prices for agricultural supplies. “Government subsidies go to the big land owners,” Urbano García, an organizer with Fensuagro, the farmer and farmworkers union, said by phone from Magdalena Aug. 23. “But for peasants, the cost of production is often greater than the price they receive.”

Pedro Aguilar, president of the Truckers Association of Colombia, told the Militant that drivers are demanding that the price of gas be lowered from $4.50 a gallon to $1 a gallon. “We also want the companies that contract us to pay a minimum per mile to cover truck maintenance,” Aguilar said. “Right now many of us don’t even earn enough to eat.”

Artisanal miners are protesting government bans on small-scale mining and confiscation of their equipment. “The government favors the transnational mining companies,” Aydeé Moreno, human rights director for Fensuagro, said from Bogotá.

—SETH GALINSKY