VA - SOS Colombia, Pt. 1: Against The Violation Of Human Rights (2021)

Since April 28, Colombia entered into a national strike catalyzed by a new tax reform in the midst of a brutal economic and social crisis exacerbated by the pandemic. The government tried to shift the burden of tax collection back to the middle and lower classes. Parallel to the peaceful protests, there are organized groups using the chaos to vandalize. The police and military forces executed hundreds of violent acts in the demonstrations and peaceful protests that still continue and that leave to date (8.05.2021) according to Human Rights International, 43 assassinations, 105 disappeared, 160 attacks medical missions, 160 detainees, 1330 wounded and 6 cases of sexual violence.

While this oppression is at its peak by the police and ESMAD, it is not new. Colombia is a country marked by inequality, corruption and systematic violence against the people through neoliberal policies, drug trafficking and elite mass media that manipulate and hide the truth. In a country where education and health are privileges, where opportunities are utopias and the future seems to be cancelled, people go out, people march, people are angry, people can't take it anymore.

Aligned with this feeling, multiple collectives and agents of the Colombian and international culture and scene decided to unite and contribute with our art to help the victims of this oppressive government, to amplify and denounce the police barbarism and to raise our voice and resist through our art.

SOS Colombia is a fist up, a cry that today becomes a collective action of musicians and visual artists presented in a compilation of techno and experimental music and also short documentaries that will expose to the world how an extreme right-wing government massacres and silences its people.