Colombia's Streets Erupt: What 'Abelardo Hates Us' Means for De la Espriella's Next 100 Days

Tens of thousands of Colombians flooded the streets of Bogotá and other major cities on Wednesday as teachers' unions, indigenous federations, labor federations and feminist organizations launched the most coordinated street challenge yet to President Abelardo de la Espriella's far-right government — chanting "Abelardo nos odia" (Abelardo hates us) in a mobilization that analysts describe as a political inflection point barely two months into his administration.

Two Months In, a Government Under Pressure

De la Espriella, the hard-right attorney who defeated leftist Senator Iván Cepeda by under one percentage point in the June 21 presidential runoff, has governed at full throttle since taking office on August 7. His security apparatus reported seizing 125 metric tons of cocaine, 60 metric tons of marijuana and 1,092 kilograms of heroin in his first two months, alongside 876 detentions of alleged criminal group members and 70 others killed in security operations.

But the aggressive security posture that has won him praise from allies of Donald Trump and Álvaro Uribe has also produced something his administration did not expect this early: a unified opposition. Public school teachers, indigenous communities, feminist collectives, labor unions and cultural workers — groups that rarely march under a single banner — converged Wednesday in rejection of a president they accuse of governing for the few while restricting the right to dissent for the many.

Teachers on Strike, Indigenous Communities on the Move

The most visible action in Bogotá came from the Asociación Distrital de Educadores (ADE), which declared a 24-hour work stoppage Wednesday. The union accused Bogotá's Secretaría de Educación of violating collective agreements, cutting salaries from teachers who participated in earlier marches, and penalizing educators for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest.

Fecode, the national federation of public school teachers, joined the march under a broader banner — demanding protections for public education, health guarantees for the teaching workforce, and emergency resources for school reconstruction following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10, which left thousands of school buildings damaged or destroyed in Cali and other affected cities. The decision to join the mobilization was made at a national gathering of organizations held in Bogotá on September 11 and 12, where Fecode co-signed a political declaration linking education workers to a broader front of social resistance.

In the southwest, the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC) convened an indigenous and social summit from October 11 to 14 in the Caldono resguardo to define positions ahead of the march. A CRIC adviser cited De la Espriella's stances on extractivism and megaprojects in indigenous territories, as well as what the organization described as government efforts to fragment and undermine native political structures.

"Protest is the only tool indigenous peoples and social organizations have left to be heard and to demand the fulfillment of our rights," the adviser said.

"Instigators of Evil" — A President Who Went on Offense

Two days before the march, De la Espriella delivered a nationally televised address that set an unmistakably combative tone. He affirmed that peaceful protest is a constitutional right but drew a hard line: that right does not extend to "attacking other citizens, destroying property, threatening workers, or blocking ambulances." Then came the phrase that would detonate through Bogotá's streets as a slogan: he called the march's organizers "instigators of evil, not fighters for freedom" and vowed that anyone who tries to "set Colombia on fire" would face the full legal force of his government.

The rhetoric had the opposite of its intended effect, energizing the very crowd it sought to deter and giving birth to the chant "Abelardo nos odia" that spread from plaza to plaza across the capital.

The day before the march, De la Espriella signed the Decreto de Protesta Social, a measure critics say narrows the legal space for demonstrations by expanding the conditions under which security forces can intervene. That same week, his government announced it would present Congress with an Estatuto Antiterrorista — a statute that would create a national registry of terrorist organizations, authorize asset freezes and impose restrictions against listed groups and individuals based on an administrative decision of the National Security Council — without requiring a prior court conviction.

Senator Cepeda, now the opposition's most prominent voice, warned that the statute's expansive terrorism definition could be weaponized to criminalize social protest, since its consequences would fall on organizations before any judicial ruling is handed down.

The Road to November: What Comes After Wednesday

Wednesday's mobilization was designed as a rehearsal, not a finale. According to CUT president Fabio Arias Giraldo, October 14 represents the first in a sequence of actions building toward a full national strike in November — with November 11 or 20 identified as possible dates, though a final decision remains pending. Wednesday's turnout is expected to directly influence which option the coalition chooses and how broad the strike call becomes.

The march arrived with significant momentum already behind it. In the weeks prior, artists staged protests against budget cuts to the culture sector, feminist coalitions mobilized for abortion rights, and a Palestine solidarity march drew thousands on October 7 — each action adding fuel to a political climate that analysts describe as among the most polarized Colombia has experienced since the social uprisings of 2019 and 2021.

Both Fecode and the CUT have insisted the marches will be peaceful, organized and respectful of public space — placing the responsibility for any disorder squarely on the government's own confrontational rhetoric and security posture.

For De la Espriella, October 14 was never simply a march to manage. It was an early referendum on whether the mano dura approach — aggressive security policy, restrictive protest legislation and scorched-earth rhetoric — can hold together a country he won by the thinnest of margins. How his government reads Wednesday's crowds in the hours and days ahead will determine whether November becomes a historic flashpoint, or just another headline his administration can absorb.

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