Indigenous guardsmen on Friday joined thousands of people who marched in the Colombian capital as anti-government protests went into their ninth day.
“We don’t want this country to continue bleeding,” said Jhoe Sauca from CRIC, an indigenous people’s organisation based in the western Cauca department.
Indigenous people demand an end to the killings of hundreds of indigenous and other community leaders by armed groups, as well as more social equality, Sauca and other representatives told the national broadcaster Canal Uno.
The number of demonstrators has gone down since Thursday last week, when an estimated 250,000 people marched around the country.
Nationwide marches also took place on Wednesday and new ones are scheduled for December 4.
Dressed in traditional clothes, more than 150 members of indigenous guards — groups armed only with sticks that are tasked with defending indigenous territories — gathered in central Bogota.
They led an estimated 2,000 students and other people who marched towards Bolivar Square, according to broadcaster City TV.
Other protesters played classical music in a park, while still others rallied elsewhere in the capital.
The demonstrators have a wide array of demands, including the cancellation of alleged government plans for labour and pension reforms, a full implementation of the 2016 peace deal with the former guerrilla group FARC and stronger measures to protect the environment.
The strike committee is now also demanding that President Ivan Duque start talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s most important remaining guerrilla group.
Duque has met with organisations and experts on education, the environment and the 2016 peace deal.
But he has so far not accepted the strike committee’s request for exclusive talks with the government, without the participation of other sectors.
Some of the protests have turned violent, escalating into clashes, looting and the destruction of bus stations and other public property.
The Bogota authorities have estimated the damage at 40bn pesos ($11.5mn) in the capital alone.
Mayor Enrique Penalosa on Friday prohibited rallies in Bolivar Square, which has seen some clashes, starting tomorrow for a month.
Shopkeepers who say the demonstrations harm their business clashed with masked protesters in Soledad in the north, broadcaster Caracol reported.
The violence has sparked strong criticism of the riot police ESMAD, which fatally wounded young protester Dilan Cruz in Bogota last Saturday.
With the protests, Colombia joined a wave of civil unrest in South America that has swept countries including Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.