http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39657

Several demonstrations have been held in Colombia, including a protest against the cut-off of public services for households unable to afford to pay their bills in poor neighbourhoods in the western city of Medellín, where around 14,000 people took to the streets under the theme "We Either Eat or Pay Our Bills".

In that city of two million, "some 80,000 families are without water, electricity, telephone services or (heating and cooking) gas, cut off by one of the most profitable companies in Latin America," Alberto Yepes, coordinator of the "Colombia Without Poverty" campaign, told IPS.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, activists in South America -- with the exception of Peru -- will not hold demonstrations, but instead will organise activities focused on reflection, analysis and debate.

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About 30,000 students from 25 schools in Colombia will take part Wednesday in a day of reflection on poverty in Colombia and the world. And on Tuesday, Oct. 16, World Food Day, some 400 small farmers will sell their products at stands in a park in the centre of Bogota.

"We will call attention to the importance of food security, which is increasingly being undermined by the use of productive areas for growing crops to produce biofuels," said Yepes.

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