By Daniel Nardini

We saw this in the United States during the summer of 2020; protests and riots where hundreds of thousands of people protested for Black Lives Matter, and where wholesale destruction of property and dozens of deaths occurred at the hands of rioters. These things happened because of restrictions due to the corona virus epidemic and how it devastated businesses. Now something similar is happening on Colombia. There are now record deaths from the corona virus in Colombia, and the government has put in restrictions in an effort to contain the virus. These include closing businesses, restricting people to their homes, and banning social gatherings.

The result has been obvious—mass protests and riots, deadly clashes between police and demonstrators, the destruction of property, and both indigenous native groups as well as leftists trying to topple statues of Christopher Columbus and Spanish Queen Isabella. The losses to the economy and to peoples’ mental health is incalculable. Apparently the mass insanity of the restrictions that gripped America is now happening in Colombia. The only bright spot may be the increasing availability of vaccines to combat the virus. Colombian President Ivan Duque has ordered mass distribution of the vaccines for the general population. During America’s summer of discontent, vaccines against the virus were unavailable. Hopefully, the mass distribution of vaccines for the general populace of Colombia will gain momentum, and end the spread of the virus, the restrictions, and the summer of discontent that Colombia is experiencing much sooner than happened in America.