Medellín, Colombia: Riots at the University of Antioquia (UdeA)

December 1st, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63g42GKRWoY

April 18th, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz5E-i5Yr0Y

On April 18th, 2012, several individuals, most commonly called ‘capuchos’/hooded—anarchists in their great majority—assembled in the University of Antioquia in Medellín aiming at clashing against all authority, in order to demonstrate their diverse struggles and staging of freedom as praxis, that is the everyday life as a battlefield.

Using advanced guerrilla tactics, these youths—students and nonstudents—fought head to head with the ESMAD mobile anti-disturbances squadrons of the Colombian police, whose objective since their inception has been to spread terror through force and violence.

Not intended to represent anybody but themselves, the rioters have created a bloc called Clandestine Revolutionary Unit (Unidad Revolucionaria Clandestina, URC), intending not to absorb various ideas but to act together to achieve common goals. In this context, they have published several texts that clearly show their position, as the small pamphlet below.

The latest riots resulted in the foot amputation of an ESMAD cop, who was hit with a grenade by his own ‘colleagues’. Fire extinguisher bombs, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails used by protesters destroyed ATMs, porters’ lodges and other objects that assist with the commodification of our lives day after day.