Colombia President withdraws unpopular tax reform

Colombian President Iván Duque on Sunday called for the withdrawal of an unpopular tax reform that sparked street protests and led to violence in recent days.

Duque called for urgent action on a new initiative at a time when Colombia continues to suffer from the coronavirus pandemic.

"I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the Ministry of Finance and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty," Duque said Sunday.

He said the reform is not proposed on a whim but was created out of necessity, adding that the focus of the discussion shouldn't be if the reform is withdrawn or not but on how to guarantee the continuity of social programs.

Requesting the withdraw of the tax reform was an important move by Duque.

On Friday, Duque said he was willing to amend the reform, such as the 19% tax on public services for the middle and upper social strata, funeral services and gasoline, although he ruled out withdrawing it on the grounds that it was necessary to maintain subsidies for the most vulnerable populations during the pandemic.

Colombians have been taking to the streets in demonstrations against the government tax hikes that seek to recover 20 trillion pesos (5.4 million US dollars).

Colombia is suffering from a fiscal deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which negatively affected much of its economy last year and the hikes - mostly on members of the middle class - are seen as too harsh.

Some demonstrations turned violent, with police clashing with protesters.

On Sunday, crowds again marched.

Protester Angela Lopez said they are still concerned about what a new proposal will look like.

"We had hoped for it (tax reform being withdrawn). But we are not untroubled. We really don't know what will happen, we don't know what other proposal they'll have. We don't know what other name this situation will be given," she said.