Colombia National Museum protest turns violent

A protest outside Colombia's National Museum turned violent on Saturday after demonstrators gathered against President Abelardo de la Espriella's order to remove works linked to feminism, the LGBTQ community, the country's peace process and other topics.

Dozens of pieces were taken down this week after De la Espriella's government said the museum should not “serve as an instrument of political indoctrination”.

The demonstration was peaceful during the day, with music, songs and chants, but riot police later broke it up with stun grenades, tear gas and a water cannon.

Geography professor Paola Castaneda handed out stickers showing images of the removed works and said decisions were being made to rewrite Colombia's historical, artistic and cultural memory according to the government's preferred narrative.

De la Espriella said on Thursday that the state had a duty to prevent cultural spaces from being captured by what he called “atheist social-communism”. He has also warned against so-called “woke” culture, describing it as a threat to national unity.

Bogota's Museum of Modern Art and five other institutions said they had “deep concern” over the changes and urged the culture minister to guarantee museum autonomy. Their statement said no government should decide what people can see of their history based on its political affinities.