The social conflict

The organization of workers in trade unions and political parties, and struggles for the
improvement of their living conditions and the transformation of social structures, resulted
in the confrontation of those against the country's elite and ultimately, against the State .

During the conservative governments, workers' strikes were suppressed and their
petitions, little heard. Leaders workers and peasants, intellectuals and political
supporters of the worker and peasant struggles were persecuted and imprisoned. This
atmosphere of intolerance of social movements and protests had the highest expression
of the Banana Slaughter, which occurred on December 6, 1928.

This was to slaughter background strike workers of the United Fruit Company, which
began in November 1928 in the banana region of the department of Magdalena. Workers
sought the abolition of the subcontract, increased wages and the elimination of payment
in buying bonds. The company denied the list of demands. The government Abbey,
protecting the interests of the United Fruit suppressed the strike, sending a contingent of
the army that opened fire on a demonstration that took place in the town of Cienaga. The
balance was more than a thousand dead workers.