Thousands of Tunisians returned to the streets 10 years after the Arab Spring, demanding change to the country’s endemic corruption and lack of social services to fit the needs of the people and those in renewed poverty as a result of the COVID pandemic. Despite widespread police repression with tear gas and beatings, protesters held strong in many cities across the country.
Over 10,000 protesters marched in the Athens district of Nea Smyrni after a couple in a park was attacked by police for supposedly violating COVID guidelines. Police attacked demonstrators with flashbangs and tear gas, which resulted in the crowd assaulting one police officer and leaving him with a nonfatal head injury. For the rest of the night, police ran around the area, brutally assaulting anyone who approached them.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the city of Hillah in a much larger demonstration than that of the previous day’s to demand the end of corruption in Iraq, as well as increased employment opportunities sponsored by the government. A police presence remained absent, as most riot forces were deployed to Nasiriyah and Baghdad.
Around 200 anarchists in Athens gathered at Exarcheion Square and marched afterward in support of anarchist political prisoner Vangelis Stathopoulos, kept in pre-trial detention for over 18 months without any conviction of crimes supposedly committed.
Thousands of protesters in Bogota took to the streets in opposition to healthcare privatization and police violence amid a general strike ongoing in Colombia. Despite the vast majority of demonstrations being peaceful, police brutally cracked down across the capital city, using chemical weapons and at times live rounds.
