“It’s not easy to be away from your country. At times one only comes to suffer, to withstand mistreatment, hunger - and economically things aren’t good.”
Signs of mounting hunger are already being felt around the region, where desperate citizens are violating quarantines to go out in search of money and food and hanging red and white flags from their homes in a cry for aid.
"There isn't money left to buy food, let alone pay rent," said Ramirez, who plays music in the streets of Colombia to help allay some costs.
Cine Colombia, the largest cinema company in the South American country, is offering daily al fresco movie showings at dusk on a giant screen that Bogota residents can watch from their balconies or windows.
Across Colombia, 13 women have been murdered since the virus lockdown started, many killed by their boyfriends or husbands in their homes, government figures show.
The riot was triggered by an attempted mass breakout from La Modelo prison as the capital Bogota was on a weekend lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.
Several thousand Colombians continued their protest against President Ivan Duque by banging pots and pans late into the evening in the latest show of rejection against his conservative government.
The march follows a deadly car bombing at a Bogota police academy attributed to rebels of the National Liberation Army that killed 21 people and left dozens wounded.
The bomb exploded at a police academy in capital Bogota, wounding dozens others in what the authorities condemned as "terrorism". Defence Minister Guillermo Botero blamed the attack on leftist rebel group.
The agreement reached by former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerilla group faces new challenges under right-wing Ivan Duque's leadership.
The right-wing Ivan Duque, who is just 42 years old, succeeds Juan Manuel Santos — and could work to undo the deal his predecessor reached with leftist FARC guerrillas to end a half-century of conflict.
Ex-FARC guerrillas worry about conservative Ivan Duque’s win in the presidential election due to his promises to roll back the 2016 peace agreement that ended the decades-long conflict in the country.
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