Amid Farmers' Protests, Colombia's Search for Middle Ground Continues

Colombia's most contentious summer in recent years has been replete with protests, most notably among agricultural workers, and while Bogota will accommodate protesters to some degree, it will not alter what appears to be its most controversial policy: the liberalized trade regime. Indeed, the country has seen strikes, roadblocks and marches in a variety of industries, including mining and commercial transportation, but agricultural groups have been the most vocal against what they see as governmental negligence. After a decade of trade liberalization policies that have largely benefited urban consumers at the expense of the country's rural producers, this constituency is now demanding that the government protect domestic production from foreign competition.

To placate these workers, Bogota might reduce the price of agricultural inputs, give farmers bigger budgets and extend them cheap credit. It may even shy away from signing new trade deals. But it will not renege on deals already implemented with the United States and the European Union — deals that may pose the biggest challenge to agricultural workers. Finding enough middle ground to at least temporarily end the protests will be difficult but not impossible.