Thousands protested budget cuts and economic reforms as clashes with police erupted in several Colombian cities.

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Thousands of people took to the streets across Colombia on Wednesday in the first national strike against President Abelardo de la Espriella’s administration, as police used tear gas, rubber bullets and armored vehicles to disperse demonstrators in several cities.

RELATED: Colombia Holds First National Strike Against De la Espriella

Protests spread across more than a dozen departmental capitals and municipalities, including Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Ibagué, Popayán and Bucaramanga. In Bogotá, four columns of demonstrators converged on Bolívar Square under a security operation monitored by a Unified Command Post.

In Medellín, demonstrations escalated into clashes between protesters and the Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron (ESMAD). Security forces deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and armored vehicles, leading to several arrests. Assaults on members of the press were also reported.

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Clashes and serious public disturbances were also recorded in Ibagué and Popayán following police interventions. Human rights organizations, including the NGO Temblores, denounced the presence of armed men carrying rifles on the rooftops of government buildings in Bogotá, describing their deployment as a direct threat to protesters.

The demonstrations brought together trade unions, teachers, university students, Indigenous communities, LGBTQ+ groups and feminist organizations. Opposition figures, including former President Gustavo Petro and Senator Iván Cepeda, also took part.

Protesters called for labor, education and social protections, seeking to preserve measures introduced under the previous administration, including free access to public universities and increases in the minimum wage. They opposed what they described as a neoliberal shift under De la Espriella’s government, citing budget cuts and the administration’s initial economic reforms.

Colombianos:

Me dirijo a ustedes esta noche para entregarles un balance claro, objetivo y contundente de la jornada de manifestaciones que vivió hoy nuestro país.

¡Que quede absolutamente claro! El 98% de las movilizaciones transcurrió de manera pacífica.

La inmensa mayoría de… pic.twitter.com/CmllZVPBtu

— Abelardo De La Espriella (@ABDELAESPRIELLA) October 15, 2026

Text Reads: Colombians: I address you tonight to deliver a clear, objective, and unequivocal report on the day of demonstrations that our country experienced today. Let it be absolutely clear! 98% of the mobilizations took place peacefully. The vast majority of those who took to the streets exercised their legitimate right to protest in an orderly and respectful manner toward the institutions. That is democracy, and as President of the Republic, I will always defend and guarantee it. At the close of this day, the national tally records a total of 62,000 citizens mobilized. A figure that represents a very small proportion of the Colombian population, but whose rights and guarantees deserve the full respect of the State. From the first day of my Government, I have issued a directive that admits no interpretations: peaceful protest is respected, protected, and guaranteed. But violence, vandalism, and any attempt to violate the rights of others will have no place under my mandate. Because as legitimate as the right to demonstrate is the right of millions of Colombians to work, move freely, and live in tranquility. Here there is a State, here there is authority, and here there is a Government that respects freedoms, enforces the law, and protects the millions of Colombians who rise early every day to work and build the Nation. Firm for the Nation! Long live Christ the King! (A.D.L.E.)

Demonstrators also rejected the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel and what they described as U.S. interference in Colombia’s affairs.

Tensions mounted after the government signed a decree hours before the marches that changes the rules governing police conduct during public demonstrations. De la Espriella defended the measure as necessary to combat “urban terrorism,” while opposition politicians and social organizations condemned it as an attempt to intimidate protesters.

Senator Cepeda warned that the decree risked returning Colombia to a situation in which fear enabled arbitrary actions by security forces.

“They want to take us back to a time when fear becomes the means through which the security forces act arbitrarily,” Cepeda said.

Trade union sources said organizers were already drawing up a schedule of further mobilizations for the coming months following Wednesday’s mass protests. The campaign could culminate in a general strike in November.

Thousands rally for better-funded public schools as a teachers’ strike in Madrid leaves two people injured and five students arrested.

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Five students were arrested and two people injured during police confrontations in Madrid on Wednesday, as thousands of teachers and supporters took to the streets on the first day of a regional teachers’ strike demanding better funding, smaller classes and improved working conditions in public education.

RELATED: Marches in Spain Honor Maricarmen, the Evicted Woman Who Died Amid the Housing Crisis

Demonstrators wearing green gathered at Puerta del Sol before marching through central Madrid towards the regional Education Department. The protests targeted the education policies of regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whom demonstrators accuse of weakening public schools by diverting taxpayer funds to private education and refusing to negotiate with teachers and parent associations, according to teleSUR correspondent Álvaro Fragua.

Police also confronted students at Madrid’s Complutense University during a demonstration in support of the strike. Two people were taken to hospital with injuries. Five university students and a woman participating in a separate demonstration in central Madrid were arrested. No further arrests had been reported at the time of the report.

Text Reads: 📚 Non-university teachers in the Community of Madrid, Spain, began an indefinite strike this Wednesday—called by trade unions—to demand better working conditions and more resources for quality public education. No end date has been set for the stoppage.
🧑‍🏫 Their demands include better conditions for teaching staff, increased resources for public education, smaller class sizes, and proper care for all students.
📢 Demonstrations have been organized for the initial days of the strike: a march from Atocha to Puerta del Sol this afternoon and a human chain on Thursday at the Department of Education.

Teachers said educational inequality was reflected in disparities between neighborhoods, arguing that children’s access to quality education depended on where they lived, with poorer communities bearing the greatest burden.

The strikers are demanding changes to class sizes, teaching workloads and specialist support for students with additional educational needs. Their proposals include capping classes at 13 students in early childhood education, 15 in primary school, 20 in secondary school, 23 in upper secondary education and 15 in vocational training.

They also want weekly teaching loads limited to 17 periods for secondary school and vocational training teachers and 22 for primary school teachers. The proposed limits would include tutoring, department leadership and coordination duties.

Improving support for students with disabilities and other educational needs is another central demand. Teachers are calling for at least one guidance counselor for every 250 students, one community services professional at each school, one therapeutic education teacher for every eight students and one speech and language specialist for every 12. They also want a compensatory education teacher at every school and additional staffing guarantees for special education.

On pay, the strikers are seeking a €600 monthly increase in the regional general teaching supplement, along with pay parity for vocational training teachers and specialists in community services, therapeutic education, and speech and language support. They are also demanding a special allowance for hazardous working conditions in special education and at least one full-time administrative assistant at every school.

The demands extend to school infrastructure and workplace safety. Teachers want a comprehensive, sustainable climate-control plan for schools, the removal of asbestos, an end to phased construction of public schools and stronger occupational health and safety measures. They are also calling for an equity plan to ensure adequate support for students facing socioeconomic hardship, those with special educational needs and other vulnerable groups.

Teachers announced a larger demonstration for Wednesday afternoon, with a march planned from Atocha to Puerta del Sol, where people were continuing a protest camp in support of the public education movement. The strike’s first day brought demands for changes to staffing, funding, pay and school conditions alongside opposition to the regional government’s education policies.

Thousands of Colombians marched in Bogotá and other cities on Wednesday in the first national strike against the government of President Abelardo de la Espriella, just two months after he took office, rejecting a decree that sets rules for how security forces handle demonstrations.

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The strike unfolded barely two months into the president’s term. Protesters filled the streets of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Bucaramanga, Pereira and Riohacha in a direct rejection of the government’s economic and security agenda.

The call brought together labor unions, student groups, opposition parties, labor federations and the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC).

RELATED: Colombian President Signs Decree Expanding Police Powers to Disperse Protests

Organizers described the turnout as a condemnation of the government’s economic and security agenda, the rising cost of living, a rise in violence, the rollback of social gains and what they call attempts to criminalize the right to protest.

Demonstrators emphasized the peaceful nature of the protest, pushing back against signals from the presidential palace that seek to delegitimize the demands of civil society.

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The trigger was Decree 1525, signed by De la Espriella. The measure sets rules for the conduct of security forces at public gatherings and allows authorities to disperse them in the event of serious disturbances. Local governments responded with a large deployment of police in the main cities.

The opposition read that operation as an attempt to condition the right to demonstrate in advance. The reading sharpened a day that organizers had already framed as an expression of accumulated anger over the cost of living and the dismantling of social programs.

“Protest is the only instrument left to native people and social organizations to be heard and to demand that our rights be respected,” demonstrators said.

Así luce la Plaza de Bolívar en este momento. Por más que la derecha y los medios intenten decir que no se llenó, aquí sigue la ciudadanía después de la lluvia.

¡Un pueblo lleno de dignidad! pic.twitter.com/GiaMgORgyB

— U L D A R I C O (@UldaricoRamire) October 14, 2026

Broad Coalition, Varied Demands

Discontent is not limited to the decree. The mobilized sectors question the entire set of the government’s early decisions, accusing it of dismantling social gains and making daily life more expensive for the majority.

The Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode), the Colombian Federation of Educators, rallied in defense of public education and the health coverage of teachers. The union also demanded the reconstruction of school infrastructure damaged by earlier emergencies, including the earthquake and its aftershocks in the Cauca Valley, and denounced what it calls the stigmatization of teachers’ unionism.

Native and peasant communities rejected the megaprojects and economic measures they say endanger their ancestral territories. The Cauca Indigenous Regional Council (CRIC) warned that the De la Espriella administration is working to break the autonomy of their organizations.

The economic agenda concentrated much of the anger. Rising prices and policies that organizers say erode acquired rights pushed workers from various productive sectors onto the streets. The protests now carry the weight of a first major social test for the national government, only two months into its mandate. Workers’ federations and popular movements frame the conflict as the defense of historic gains against an agenda they consider regressive.

For the new government, the demonstrations mark a direct challenge. The police deployment in six cities, the breadth of the coalition and the presence of a former President all signal that the strike has moved beyond a dispute over one decree.

Whether the mobilization alters the course of the government’s program remains to be seen. Organizers have promised the pressure will continue if De la Espriella does not reverse the decree and reopen dialogue with the social sectors.

High school and university students in France continued their protests on Tuesday, October 13, demanding government investment in public education. Approximately 480,000 protesters took to the streets in the latest iteration of the mobilization, with families, teachers, and trade unions backing students’ demands. 

Read more: French students shut down schools in historic strike against austerity

The mobilization remains marked by widespread police violence. Police used tear gas and dispersal grenades on crowds, including at Tuesday’s central march in Paris. Hundreds of students were injured and thousands arrested in these incidents, prompting reactions from human rights organizations. 

In response, the public joined students as they blocked high schools and organized marches to physically shield them from potential harm. Trade union members, notably from the education sector, were highly represented in these support lines. 

“The CGT reaffirms the urgent need to address the demands of those who are the country’s future ,” the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) asserted. “The CGT salutes their fighting spirit. It welcomes the strong anti-fascist tone of the demonstrations, which shows that there is no inevitability to the continued flourishing of fascist ideas or to the far right’s rise to power.” 

Students demand access to higher education

Since the beginning of the month, French students have organized three massive demonstrations to warn against the state of education under austerity. “For several weeks, high school and university students have been mobilizing to denounce the deterioration of their study conditions, the Parcoursup system, staff and resource shortages, policies that are dismantling public services, and – more broadly – the future this society holds in store for them,” the trade union federation Solidaires recognized in their statements. 

Equal access to higher education has been high on the protesters’ demand list since the beginning. This refers in good part to how students are currently recruited into university courses – the Parcoursup admission platform. Introduced in 2018 under Macronist ministers to replace a previous system that randomized selection for oversubscribed courses, Parcoursup was supposed to “rationalize” admissions.

In practice, however, critics and applicants emphasize the platform allows institutions to apply unclear selection criteria and even discriminate against students from working-class areas.

In September 2026, the left party La France Insoumise warned that 126,652 students were not able to access a course as a result of the system – up from 77,000 in 2023. “This selection process is the product of austerity-driven political choices deliberately implemented by successive Macron-era governments,” the party warned.

“Parcoursup is a social sorting machine,” Solidaires echoed. “The platform organizes competition among young people for places that the State deliberately refuses to create. It transforms the right to study into a privilege, scarcity into selection, and austerity into supposed individual failure.”

Commodification of education

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the left’s presidential candidate, pointed out that these choices are part of a broader political agenda: “the commodification of education and knowledge.”

Trade union briefs on the subject back this interpretation. At the beginning of this school year, Solidaires warned that thousands of those left without higher education placings are being sacrificed in the name of austerity. 

“But not everyone experiences this violence in the same way,” they wrote. “The wealthiest families can afford private schooling, fund housing on the other side of the country, or sustain a year without studying. Young people from working-class backgrounds, however, have no way out. A lack of options means either being forced into the job market or military service – abandoning their plans for good – or facing precariousness, isolation, and debt at a private institution.”

“We have shifted from an egalitarian system to a discriminatory one: pay for your own future,” Mélenchon concluded in a recent interview.

Read more: Greek university labor leaders face charges after supporting students

The left leader anticipated that student demands will be an important topic during the upcoming election campaign, where the left is contrasting a program of rupture with neoliberal policies to the far right’s intention to build a debt brake not unlike Germany’s. In practice, this would translate into years of sustained attacks on social security and public services. 

Trade unions and progressive organizations announced their support for the youth mobilizations will continue as they build campaigns to resist the government’s intention to impose billions in cuts to pensions and social security while spending record amounts on rearmament.

For their part, student unions invited their members to remain active and join a general mobilization against the cost of living crisis this Saturday, October 17.