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Demonstrators clashed with riot police outside Colombia’s National Museum in Bogota on Sunday for a second consecutive day, protesting the government’s decision to remove more than 30 exhibits covering political movements, historical events and cultural issues.
The protest began at 11:00 a.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT) along the central Carrera 7 and Calle 34 corridor, where demonstrators denounced the removal of historical artifacts, artworks and archival displays.
Tensions escalated when masked individuals threw blunt objects at police lines. Officers from the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad, now officially known as the Dialogue and Maintenance of Order Unit (UNDMO), deployed water cannons and armored vehicles to disperse crowds and clear blockades.
According to the Bogota District Government Secretariat, most peaceful demonstrators left as clashes broke out, although smaller groups continued confronting law enforcement into the afternoon.
Sunday’s demonstration drew prominent political and cultural figures, including former Pacto Historico senator Maria Jose Pizarro, former Culture Ministers Juan David Correa and Patricia Ariza, and former Environment Minister Susana Muhamad.
Representatives of various social and Indigenous organizations also joined the protest against the removal of the exhibits.
The unrest followed similar confrontations on Saturday, when police used water cannons to disperse demonstrators blocking major transport routes near the museum.
Meanwhile, artists, journalists, academics and cultural workers launched a nationwide petition condemning what they described as "an offensive by the current government against the 1991 Constitution and Colombia's cultural diversity."
More than 30 exhibits were removed last Thursday after President Abelardo de la Espriella announced a "cultural counterrevolution" across public cultural institutions.
The administration defended the move through the Ministry of Culture, arguing that state museums must remain free of political indoctrination and apologetics for illegal groups.
Amid Sunday’s clashes, Maria Carolina Restrepo Canavera, director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), condemned the alleged presence of minors during the confrontations.
"The right to peaceful assembly does not justify exposing children and adolescents to hazardous environments," she said, warning that minors must not be used as human shields or brought into direct confrontations with security forces.
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