Colombia protests: what do those KPop videos have to do with it?

I have noted in my blog about the devestation of the middle class/lower middle class here in the Philippines due to the covid virus: Not just the deaths, but the economic problems due to quarantine and the loss of jobs both here and with our OFW.

What has kept the public quiet here so far is that Duterte is still popular, but that might change of course. 

But the same economic crisis is dangerously destablizing other countries that only in recent years have pulled their people out of poverty into the middle class, and that includes countries like Brazil and Colombia.

 South America has been badly hit by the Covid virus, not just in deaths but because of the economic crisis caused by the shut down and quarantines. 

Colombia was actually improving after a truce with FARC, economic improvement, and the decrease in narco terrorism, which moved to Venezuela and Mexico. 

But the Covid artificial induced poverty crisis is destabeling that country, and one result is that many of the Venezuelan refugees that fled there are now no longer welcome, so are wending their way to the USA, where Biden has a big sign up saying All are welcome. 

The BBC reports that the protest in Colombia started when taxes were raised, which was seen by the middle class, who had only recent years gotten out of poverty, saw this as the last straw pushing them back into poverty. 

Things are escalating due to police brutality (i.e. stopping the demonstrations/riots vigourously, and killing some people which they didn't need to do).

But now the demonstrators include the "indigenous" (who tend to be left wing because only the left bothers to protect them from greedy oil etc. that want to steal/exploit/utilize their undeveloped resources.)

Because of economic disparities the left is popular: alas, the rebels morphed years ago into helping the Narco terror types, and now things are complicated because the Narco terror types moved into Venezuela, and even steal/exploit peasants and indigenous groups in various ways.

So when it comes to riots, the narco types who have links with FARC and the left are of course there to make things unstable so they can take over.

Think of how the valid US anti police violence protests deteriorated as the Antifa got involved, and as the BLM leaders started openly pushing their larger agenda. 

And the BLM type tactics of blocking roads to Cali are not likely to make them popular, alas, with the mainly middle class who up to now have been participating in the protests.

JohnBachelor has this podcast discussing the problem:

GlobalVision, a site that publishes independent reports from bloggers/independent journalists has another report on the protests from a more leftist point of view.

This includes a report on how the protesters, both left wing activists and the middle class who started the protests, are getting around the problem of getting out information.

The article mentions how activists are countering the government propaganda in the social media by replying to them by posting KPop videos with hashtags that protest the violence.

This enables them to change the discussion in the social media.

Spanish article here.

I post this for two reasons: Because the protests are complicated, but also to point out how widespread is the Korean media, both K dramas and KPop.

I don't think this has been noticed by the MSM in the USA, even with NetFlix posting some of the more popular Kdramas for the USA to watch.

BBC article from 2019 about how K Pop is taking over the world.