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Colombian President Extends Olive Branch to Protesters

Associated Press

   BOGOTA - The government of President Ivan Duque extended an olive
   branch Monday to labor and student groups organizing recent protests in
   Colombia by offering to start separate talks on their demands.

   Administrative Director Diego Molano said the government is willing to
   immediately initiate talks on 13 points identified by the National
   Strike Committee - but also asked it to refrain from a planned protest
   on Wednesday.

   "We've asked them, given the clamor of Colombians and so that the
   country can begin the Christmas season peacefully, that they suspend
   the Dec. 4 strike," Molano said, noting it could have economic and
   transportation repercussions.

   Members of the National Strike Committee, comprised of over a dozen
   labor, student and other activist groups, said it was too late to stop
   Wednesday's protest but expressed hope the offer for dialogue
   nonetheless remains.

   "The government has been very slow to convoke us," said Julio Roberto
   Gomez, head of the General Labor Confederation, one of the nation's
   largest unions and a member of the National Strike Committee.

   Duque had previously insisted that the strike committee join the
   "National Conversation" he has begun with a wider swatch of society to
   draft short- and long-term solutions to issues like corruption and
   inequality.

   "I'm the president of all Colombians," Duque said in a televised
   interview Monday. "Those who march and those who don't march."

   Protest organizers have refused to participate in that dialogue,
   bashing it as a conversation amongst allies that would dilute
   demonstrator concerns, and instead demanded that the president
   establish separate talks specifically with them.

   Molano did not make clear if the government would still be willing to
   hold independent talks with the National Strike Committee even if it
   proceeds with a Wednesday strike.

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