Colombia
Usually, there is no Coronell Report on Tuesdays.
However, today I have asked to do it because agreed to talk to me Simonathe activist who this Sunday, March 20, along with other hooded men, entered the Primate Cathedral of Bogotá and he yelled at a mass to read a manifesto.
She considers it a poem and part of a performance artistic.
I think it is important to talk regarding this for several reasons:
- Because in this case there is clear tension between constitutional rights: on the one hand, the right to freedom of worship and, on the other, the right to freedom of expression and protest.
- Why this event occurs in the midst of an environment of particular political tension and it has been used as campaign ammunition by some who have wanted to identify this fact as an action by supporters of the candidate Gustavo Petro. For example, the candidate Federico Gutiérrez wrote regarding this fact: “They even want to expropriate our faith! And so, combining all the forms of struggle, setting the country on fire and attacking those who think differently, think they will win and govern us.”
- Because, in turn, Petro has hinted that it is an act of black propaganda fueled by his opponents to blame him and for that he has condemned Simona’s action. He wrote: “We put freedom of worship in the Constitution, Uribismo, desperate, slaps it. I ask the Catholic Church to initiate criminal action once morest these people.”
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It is evident that what Simona did hurts the sensibilities of many peoplebecause they feel that a religious ceremony was disrespected and that they have the right to exercise their faith without being disturbed.
Simona is part of the group Network of Artists in Resistance (RAR) and another call Blue Shields. The latter was part of the First Line during the mobilizations of the National Strike.
Simona and Jose speak in El Reporte Coronell
- “First of all, I want to ask you: are you and the other hooded men who accompanied you on Sunday, or are you not supporters of Gustavo Petro?
“Our actions do not fit in their ballot boxes and we have stated that we are not petristas or uribistas (…) (our actions) are being framed and instrumentalized”, Simona stated.
- Someone he gave you the instruction to interrupt the mass to have an effect on the presidential campaign?
Simona warned in El Reporte Coronell de La W that they received no instruction from anyone, because their act was an artistic performance: “Our hearts were outraged at so much pain and so much lack of empathy in the face of so many deaths that died in the streets, those who have not had social guarantees.”
- What do you think of Gustavo Petro’s request for the Church to initiate criminal proceedings once morest him?
“Petro is not the president yet, you can not yet take attributions of your body. Us we do not interrupt, we do not vandalize, we do not violatewe were participants in the action (…) we questioned how we relate to others”, replied Simona.
For his part, Jose explained: “We thought of doing it (the performance) during the salute to peace, our intervention lasted three minutes. We left the place and the mass continued normally.
- You, like any other citizen, have the right to freedom of expression and protest, but why do it right in the middle of a mass? Beyond your disagreement with what the Catholic hierarchy does, don’t people deserve the minimum respect that allows them to continue their Eucharist without being interrupted?
“This is the power that art also has, it has the ability to influence unconventional spaces to draw attention to certain complaints. Art does not ask permission to attend a certain spaceSimon said.
- Why do you and your companions wear hoods?
Likewise, she reported that she and her group have been a trend and the target of threats: “At this time we are the target of many threats, this action showed me how violent this country is and that it will not change at the polls but will change when I accept the difference. I am a victim of attacks from the right and from the Petrista fanatic. I want to clarify that I am not Michelle Obando, who has been threatened.
For this reason, Simona assured that the hood is “the face of a fighting people, the face of all, is not an individual face but a collective one. We are one voice: a voice without a face.”
- Simona, I want to ask you something that has nothing to do with the subject but that serves to give me an example: Are you in favor of marriage between people of the same sex?
“Of course, love is free and should take all possible forms. I will not inhibit two people who love each other (…) all expressions of love are valid“, answered.
- You know that there are many people who do not agree with same-sex marriage. What would you feel if a same-sex wedding, such a special ceremony for the spouses, was suddenly interrupted by shouts of opponents of their right to marry? Would you consider this form of expression and protest to be legitimate?
To this question, Simona replied: “We must listen to what they are saying. I would say: ok, they are interrupting a space that is mine, I am going to listen to what the other has to tell me, what he wants to question. That is starting to build with the other”.
You have every right to express yourself and to protest. And all people have the right to exercise the religion they choose or not to exercise any without being disturbed for it.
