On 18 March 2025, in Barranquilla (Atlantico), around 10,000 people marched from the SENA Atlantico offices to the Simon Bolivar neighborhood in support of the social reforms proposed by President Gustavo Petro (PH). The protests were called nationwide by the president after the announcement of the imminent defeat in Congress of the labor reform proposed by his government. Students at the SENA institution, teachers, farmers, labor unions, members of the CUT, and a deputy from the Historic Pact (PH) party took part in the demonstration.

Supply-chain Risk Briefing

1. Summary

On March 18, 2025, a peaceful protest supporting President Petro's social reforms took place in Barranquilla, Colombia, with approximately 10,000 participants. This was part of nationwide protest calls following the potential failure of labor reform bills to pass through Congress, involving students, teachers, farmers, and labor unions. Currently classified as a low-risk peaceful protest with limited immediate supply-chain threats.

2. Supply-chain impact

• Barranquilla Port Operations: Potential temporary constraints on port accessibility and traffic congestion due to large-scale protests in Colombia's major Caribbean coastal port city
• Agricultural Sector Instability: Need for supply-chain monitoring due to farmer group participation, particularly requiring connectivity checks for production areas of Colombia's major exports including coffee, bananas, and palm oil
• Inland Logistics Connectivity: As Barranquilla serves as a key hub for inland logistics via the Magdalena River, protest expansion could cause freight transportation delays across Colombia's northern region
• Energy Infrastructure: Monitoring needed for indirect impacts on access routes to coal export and oil refining facilities along Colombia's northern coast

3. Watch points

• Protest Expansion: Tracking whether nationwide-called protests spread to other major cities (Bogotá, Medellín, Cali) and monitoring scale changes
• Labor Reform Bill Progress: Assessing additional protest mobilization capacity and potential follow-up actions by unions (strikes, etc.) based on congressional voting results