The measure allows security forces to break up demonstrations without prior dialogue.
On Tuesday, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella signed Decree 1525, a measure that facilitates police repression by broadening the definition of “violence” during popular protests.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara warned that the new regulation will take effect before demonstrations called by social movements, organizations, and opposition parties for Oct. 14.
De La Espriella’s decree authorizes security forces to disperse demonstrations without prior dialogue, using tear gas, stun grenades, and other weapons classified as “less-lethal.”
The decree also prohibits road blockades and the presence of masked protesters at demonstrations, a measure that moves toward criminalizing social protest and violates the free exercise of the right to protest.
Colombia opened its embassy in occupied Jerusalem today, marking a major shift in its traditionally pro-Palestinian foreign policy under newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella.
The move follows the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel in August 2026,… pic.twitter.com/UVSdxuFlON
The new regulation states that dialogue with demonstrators is not “a prerequisite that conditions, suspends or postpones intervention actions directed individually against those who commit acts of violence.”
Indigenous, labor, educational and territorial organizations are preparing a day of mobilization for Wednesday, which will serve as an initial test of the level of opposition to far-right President De La Espriella, who has been in power for just over two months.
On Tuesday, he said that peaceful protest is a “constitutional guarantee,” but that this right “does not authorize attacking other citizens, destroying property, threatening workers, or preventing access for ambulances and emergency services.”
“In the face of acts that constitute crimes, authorities will act in accordance with the law,” De La Espriella said, referring to the protest scheduled for Wednesday.
“Never again a permanent blockade of a highway. Never again a urban bus lane turned into a trench. Attacking a person, throwing objects to injure someone, detaining someone, or using a child in a protest is not protest; it is a crime and will be treated as such,” he threatened.
There is both good news and bad news about the state of the world’s forests. The good news is that deforestation fell by 15% in 2025 compared with 2024, the largest decline recorded so far this decade. The bad news is that a shift in political priorities could undo some of those gains. Much of the progress in forest conservation depends on the political will of a handful of key countries, particularly in Latin America, which is now entering a period of electoral uncertainty and possible changes of government.
An aerial photograph shows a plantation field in the Amazon rainforest during a Greenpeace overflight in the Brazilian state of Maranhão in November 2025.
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