Colombian president’s police pledge makes universities ‘fearful’
The announcement by Columbia’s new right-wing president that security forces will be permitted to enter public university campuses for the first time is a way of “picking a fight” with universities, observers have suggested.
Abelardo de la Espriella only took up office on 7 August but the self-styled Trumpian strongman has wasted no time in shaking things up, observers said. And in one of his regular speeches to the nation via his YouTube channel, de la Espriella vowed to crack down on “acts of violence” and “disturbances of public order” across the public higher education system.
Article 69 of the country’s constitution, incorporated in 1991, enshrines the right to university autonomy and states that public universities are able to “administer and govern themselves through their own by-laws”. However, the national police have a duty to investigate specific crimes committed on a university campus and de la Espriella maintains his stance does not contravene the constitution and vowed not to crack down on the “legitimate exercise of protest”.
But his comments have still caused controversy.
Ana María Otero-Cleves, senior lecturer in the history of Latin America at the University of York and former associate professor at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, told Times Higher Education that there had been a “tense relationship between the state and public universities” since the early 20th century.
She referenced the deaths of some 20 students in 1971, amid clashes between protestors and police over attempts to increase privatisation of public universities, as well as Colombia’s more recent anti-government protests of 2019 and 2021, in which many students participated.
Otero-Cleves said "several factors account for De la Espriella’s antagonism toward universities, including the “conceptual and historical conflation of public higher education with the political left, the president’s primary adversary”, and the “student movement’s demonstrated capacity for mass street mobilisation and organised political opposition” in Colombia.
“Needless to say, this stance is not unique to the Colombian context,” she continued. “The most prominent example has been Donald Trump’s posture towards higher education during the first year of his second term.”
The American president has received attention for his perceived finagling of the US system – which last year saw him dangle more access to public funding in exchange for universities giving up autonomy over admissions, academic freedom and the setting of tuition fees.
And rows over police on campuses have played out in a number of countries, including Greece – where a controversial law was passed in 2021 to permit their presence in order to stamp out crime.
Nonetheless, specific factors contribute to the Colombian scenario.
Carlos Mario Lopera, director of higher education analysis body the Colombian University Observatory, suggested that de la Espriella’s predecessor – Gustavo Petro, considered the first and only left-wing president in Colombian history – was a kind of foil for the new leader. And Petro “actively sponsored the public university and street protest”, Lopera said, adding that de la Espriella’s move might exacerbate the country’s political polarisation.
Political scientist and Latin Americanist Jenny Pearce, who has been researching the concept of the elite in Colombia, spoke to THE from the country, where she felt the mood on the ground was one of uncertainty.
“I think people are not sure where this is going to go,” she said. “People are fearful because there is a history of military and police violence and obviously guerrilla violence [too]...but the police and military use violence very heavily, and I think [de la Espriella] is very close to the military.
“He always comes on doing a salute whenever he’s on the television or meeting people...I think people have recognised he’s trying to build up the military…to use to create the new country he wants to create.”
But Pearce wasn’t sure whether universities would consider it “too dangerous in this moment” to confront the presidential agenda or mount a legal challenge.
“It’s very early days, but it’s certainly a very worrying start for a country that has had at least a formal commitment to electoral democracy, even though there’s a lot of transactional politics,” she added.
For Matthew Brown, professor in Latin American history at the University of Bristol, the president’s actions are the realisation of “his declared manifesto statements”, as he looks to “intervene more directly in culture war activity and to pick a fight with the public universities”.
In the run-up to the presidential election, de la Espriella courted controversy by attacking perceived left-wing influence in Colombia, including criticising elements of the press. He has also aligned himself with other right-wing leaders in the region, such as new Peruvian leader Keiko Fujimori and Argentinian president Javier Milei, who have also attacked higher education.
Brown agreed that the Colombian leader’s latest proclamation could be an “attempt to curry some favour” with Trump and to gain “media attention around the world”.
But he also described a sense of deep national pride in Colombia’s public universities system that would probably resist any move to threaten their autonomy.
“Compared [with] working in the UK, going to visit colleagues in public universities in Colombia [gives] a completely different perception. There really is a very strong idea that the public universities are for the public,” Brown said.
Allowing police on to campuses would therefore “be very unpopular among many people”, he added – but de la Espriella’s voters would “no doubt support it”.
Otero agreed: “If past experiences serve as any indication, I expect Colombian students to mobilise against the government’s stance.”
“The challenge is whether they can overcome internal divisions,” she added. “It also remains to be seen... if de la Espriella’s new protocol truly aligns with the 1991 constitution, as he claims.”
georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com