Farmers Plant Themselves on Plaza Bolivar

A protesting farmer, symbolically
chained, carries a flag beside
Simon Bolivar's statue
on Plaza Bolivar. 

Farmers camped out today around Simon Bolivar's statue on Plaza Bolivar, demanding that the government fulfill promises made after past agricultural strikes. The farmers say the government owes them subsidies on both the selling prices of their crops and on supplies like fertilizer and pesticides.

They also want a brake on the issuance of licenses for mines and other projects which pollute rivers and land.

Farmers are protesting and blocking roads in north-central Colombia, as you can see on this map.

One of the men I talked to at the protest farms coffee, which is bringing very high prices this year. But the farmer told me that at this time of year coffee growers have no harvest to sell, and they fear that by the time the harvest arrives prices will have dropped.

Fredy, who farms tubers, told me that the farmers will stay "as long as it takes" for the government to fulfill their demands.

'Onion growers dignity present!'

Fredy, who grows tubers, vows the farmers will stay in their camp until the government meets their demands.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours