The Students March

'Colombia on a war footing for education with dignity and liberty.'

Today, thousands of students - mostly from public universities - marched for more funding for public education.

A pair of indigenous women.

Racing down Carrera Septima.

Run, run, run!

'Education equals peace'.

'There are no virgins in this march, because the government screws us every day.'

'More money for education, less for the war.'

The communist flag, of course.

'Education is a right, not a privilege.'

Don't miss a photograph.

Sena students accuse their managers of corruption.

Encapuchados, the 'hooded ones.'

Che Guevara, naturally.

Indigenous activists block Carrera Septima.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Cheating Children of their Green Space

'We need green areas to breathe!'

'We want more recreation.' 'We want to breathe.'

 Recently, schoolchildren marched thru the gritty Santa Fe neighborhood calling for more green areas and recreational spaces - which are in short supply in the poor, industrial area. The neighborhood also has some of Bogotá's poorest air quality.

Yet, ironically - and infuriatingly - just a few blocks away there ARE large green spaces - which are -incomprehensibly - fenced off from the neighbors' use.

A fenced off green space along Calle 26,
across from the INPEC.

When the city built the TransMilenio line along Calle 26 to the airport in 2011, for no apparent reason they demolished houses and businesses long both sides of the avenue. Since then, the land has sat empty and unused, fenced off with barbed wire and with dogs and guards to keep out anybody who dares to walk their dog or play ball on the grass.

When tourists ask me why this is, I just shake my shoulders and confess that city bureacrats, who are obviously much more intelligent than I am, must have very good reasons to spend our tax money  to deny Bogotanos access to public green space.

Jaime Garzon, the martyred comedian, scowls down at the off-limits green area.

Don't dare walk your dog in this green area along 26th Street.

Don't you dare walk on the grass!

No approaching this mural.

A grassy area, once part of the Central Cemetery, could be turned into a large park, rather than fenced off.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Stiudents' Strange Ceremony

This strange ceremony, mixing chicha, fire, a monster and indigenous dancing, was staged yesterday evening by dance and art students from the Antonio Nariño University, as part of their year-end project.

What it meant was not clear, and left open to interpretation, a student named Brayan told me. But it also had something to do with the injustice of the 1948 assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán on a nearby sidewalk, Brayan said.

The police, however, evidently did not recognize the artistic genius in the event, rather seeing it as more of a public nuisance, located between two TransMilenio lanes and in the middle of busy Carrera Septima - not to mention the smoke billowing into Bogotá's already-noxious air. The cops hurried the students away, and later fined their teacher under the Nuevo Codigo de Policia.

That all seemed wrong to Brayan.

"It's just an art project," he protested. "It's not like we were here burning things all day long."

Evidently, artistic smoke is not bad for you like regular smoke.

But Brayan saw an elegance in the episode. "We were memorializing injustice," he observed, "and now we've been met by injustice."

Brayan was collecting donations in a hat to pay his teacher's fine.

Certainly, in their zeal for public order and protecting our air, the police might think about going a few blocks north or west and citing the vehicles belching black smoke all day long.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Protest Season Starts?

Today's big protest march by students, unions and public employees thru downtown Bogotá may be the beginning of protest season. At least, some participants said to expect more demonstrations tomorrow and Friday.

The demands - more pay and benefits and cheaper, better education, were pretty similar to last year's (and those of the year before...). In fact, conveniently, much of the graffiti and paint ball marks from last year's protests are still on building walls along La Septima.

Last year, we had months of protests, mostly by students, against the Ley 30, which would have partially privatized the public universities, which are extremely leftist. The protesters finally won when the government dropped the proposal.

These smiling female stormtroopers don't look too intimidating. 

The Banco de la Republica was well protected from paintballs. 

The government just may get overthrown, but this cafeteria's safe. 

....and so is the monument to Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, whose assassination started the biggest protests of all. 

The sign warns that without good, affordable education bigger and more violent guerrillas will appear. 

An ice cream seller doesn't miss an opporunity. 

Marching toward combat. The protests actually seemed pretty peaceful.

Vending the communist newspaper 'Voz.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours