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What happened in 2019

What happened in 2019

2019 was widely described as an extraordinary "global protest wave", with movements on every continent [1]. Here are the major ones, grouped by region.

Middle East & North Africa

Country Movement Key dates Outcome
Sudan Anti-Bashir protests Began Dec 2018; Bashir ousted 11 Apr 2019; Khartoum massacre 3 Jun 2019; power-sharing constitutional declaration Aug 2019; civilian government sworn in Sept 2019 30-year regime ended [2] [3]
Algeria Hirak Mass protests from mid-Feb (22 Feb) 2019; Bouteflika resigned 2 Apr 2019; Tebboune elected 12 Dec 2019 Ended 20-year rule [2:1] [4]
Iraq Anti-corruption/anti-Iran-influence protests Began 1 Oct 2019; PM Abdul-Mahdi resigned Nov 2019 450–460 killed, ~20,000–25,000 wounded [2:2] [3:1]
Lebanon WhatsApp tax protests → anti-corruption Erupted 17 Oct 2019; PM Hariri resigned 29 Oct 2019 Government fell; protests continued [2:3] [3:2]
Iran "Bloody November" fuel protests Fuel price hike announced midnight 15 Nov 2019; spread to 37+ cities in hours; ~6-day internet blackout; 17 Nov crackdown order Deadliest unrest since 1979: Amnesty cited ≥304 killed; Reuters reported ~1,500 [5] [5:1] [5:2]
Egypt Anti-Sisi protests 20, 21 and 27 Sept 2019 (sparked by Mohamed Ali videos from 2 Sept) ~4,300 arrests by late Oct [6] [6:1] [6:2]

Asia-Pacific

Country/Territory Movement Key dates Outcome
Hong Kong Anti-extradition bill protests Sit-in 15 Mar 2019; 9 Jun mass march; 12 Jun clashes; 1 Jul LegCo storming; 21 Jul Yuen Long attack; bill withdrawal announced 4 Sept, formal 23 Oct; PolyU siege 17–18 Nov; District Council election 24 Nov (record turnout) Bill withdrawn; 4 of 5 demands unmet; ~5 killed, 5,000+ detained [7] [7:1] [7:2] [7:3] [7:4] [7:5] [7:6] [4:1]
India Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests CAA passed 11 Dec 2019; nationwide protests from Dec 2019 Ongoing into 2020 [8] [4:2]
Russia Moscow City Council election protests Summer 2019 (July–Aug); ~1,500 detained Independent candidates barred [4:3]

Europe

Country Movement Key dates Outcome
France Yellow vests (gilets jaunes) Continued all year from Nov 2018; 11 deaths, 4,000+ injured, ~8,400 arrests Longest-running anti-government movement in French history [4:4] [8:1]
Spain (Catalonia) Pro-independence protests Oct 2019, after Supreme Court jailed nine Catalan leaders (14 Oct) Mass street protests [4:5]
Czech Republic Anti-Babiš protests 2019 PM remained in office [8:2]

Latin America & Caribbean

Country Movement Key dates Outcome
Chile "Social outburst" Fare-evasion campaign from 7 Oct 2019; escalation 18 Oct (metro stations burned, state of emergency, curfew 19 Oct); "Agreement for Social Peace" 15 Nov 2019 Fare hike cancelled; constitutional plebiscite path opened; ~22 killed [9] [9:1] [9:2] [9:3] [9:4] [4:6]
Ecuador Fuel-subsidy/austerity protests 3 Oct 2019 – 14 Oct 2019; state of emergency 4 Oct; government relocated to Guayaquil 8 Oct; deal with CONAIE 13 Oct Subsidies restored (Decree 894, 14 Oct) [10] [10:1] [10:2]
Bolivia Post-election protests Election 20 Oct 2019; Morales resigned 10 Nov 2019 Morales fled to Mexico; Áñez interim president; ~31 killed [2:4] [4:7]
Colombia National strike From Nov 2019; Dilan Cruz killed 23 Nov; cacerolazos in Dec Weeks-long protests; ~300,000 participants [11] [4:8]
Haiti Anti-Moise / PetroCaribe protests From Feb 2019; Carnival cancelled President stayed in power; ~40 killed [11:1] [4:9]
Venezuela Guaidó presidential crisis Jan 2019 (Guaidó declares presidency 23 Jan); aid clashes Feb; uprising attempt 30 Apr Maduro remained in power [11:2]
Puerto Rico "Telegramgate" protests July 2019 (leaked chat scandal) Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned [11:3]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Country Movement Key dates Outcome
Zimbabwe Fuel-price protests Early 2019 (130% fuel price rise announced Jan 2019) Crackdown followed [8:3]

Other notable 2019 movements

Also significant that year: Georgia (Tbilisi protests from 20 June 2019), Peru (Vizcarra dissolved Congress 30 Sept 2019), Mexico (Culiacán security-force debacle, 17 Oct 2019), Brazil (nationwide education protests, 15 May 2019), the UK (Brexit "Put It to the People" march, 23 Mar 2019; Extinction Rebellion occupations, Apr and Oct 2019), Malta (protests over the Caruana Galizia murder case, Nov–Dec 2019), Indonesia (student protests against the new criminal code, Sept 2019), Pakistan (Azadi March, from 31 Oct 2019), South Korea (Cho Kuk protests, Sept–Oct 2019), South Africa (xenophobic riots, Sept 2019) and Nigeria (Shia IMN clashes, July 2019).

Two caveats worth flagging: casualty figures for the Iran, Iraq and Sudan crackdowns are disputed and range widely [5:3] [2:5], and "start dates" for grassroots movements are often approximate — several (Sudan, France's yellow vests, Haiti) actually began in late 2018 and simply escalated through 2019 [2:6] [4:10] [11:4].

References

  1. Protests of 2019 - EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki (1%) ↩︎
  2. A year of discontent: Protests of 2019 toppled world leaders from Bolivia to Sudan - France 24 (6%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  3. 2019: A year of protests, everywhere! (6%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  4. 2019: Year of street protests (9%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  5. 2019–2020 Iranian protests - Wikipedia (12%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  6. 2019 Egyptian protests - Wikipedia (11%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  7. 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests - Wikipedia (18%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  8. 2019: A year of protest - World | ReliefWeb (5%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  9. Social Outburst (Chile) - Wikipedia (13%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  10. 2019 Ecuadorian protests - Wikipedia (11%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
  11. Protests that rocked The World in 2019 - The World from PRX (8%) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎