BOGOTA, Colombia – Violent clashes have broken out in the Colombian capital after the death of a man in police custody, citizens set fire to the city’s buses, destroyed police stations and confronted officials in clashes that left seven other people dead.
Wednesday’s wave of violence erupted in a video featuring two officials holding a 43-year-old man with an electric pistol while begging them to warn him and highlighting prolonged and latent tensions over excessive use of force through police.
Authorities said Thursday that 56 police stations were damaged, 8 city buses burned and 175 civilians wounded in riots, 66 of them shot.
“This didn’t even happen during the fighting at the worst moments of the Colombian armed conflict,” Mayor Claudia Lopez said after visiting the wounded in a hospital. “What did happen was an indiscriminate, disproportionate and surely unjustified attack through some members of the police opposed to the citizens of Bogota. “
Outrage arose over the death of taxi driving force Javier Ordoez, who said they were called in reaction to reports of a fight between an organization of men who had been drinking late at night in Engativa, a hard-hit working-class neighborhood in Bogota. through the coronavirus pandemic.
“They competed against the police, ” said Colonel Alexander Amaya.
A video captured through Ordoez witnesses, dressed in black trousers and sneakers, being held by police officers as he screamed.
“Stop, please stop!” he begged.
“He tells you to stop!” a witness shouts in the background: “We’re recording you. “
According to officials, Ordoez was transferred to a police station and then to a hospital, where he arrived without major signs. As announced on Wednesday the news of his death, citizens took to the streets, defying the government’s orders to avoid conglomerates because of the pandemic. Several streets were left with piles of ash and debris.
The dead were usually young. The youngest of 17.
The government has promised a thorough investigation, relatives have expressed their skepticism about justice in a country where impunity is high.
The mayor said she would insist on an independent investigation through the attorney general’s office. “None of the families I spoke to depends on a police investigation,” Lopez said.
Colombian police have been continually accused of excessive use of force in anti-government protests that took thousands of people to the streets last year. The death of 18-year-old student Dilan Cruz, who was shot in the head through a policeman. projectile as it manifested itself, provoked outrage and condemnation of human rights groups.
The new unrest comes at a time of protests in the United States against racial discrimination and police abuse of black citizens. Protests in Colombia are more strongly connected to abuses against young people and the poor. Inspired throughout the United States, the hashtag #ColombiaLives Matter has to be trending on Twitter.
Alejandro Lanz, a lawyer leading Temblores, an organization that tracks police violence, said he documented 170 cases of overpower this year and expressed his specific fear of the use of firearms by police and the presence of unidentified officials in Wednesday night’s protests.
“We underestimate those statistics,” he said.
New protests broke out when the night fell on the city on Thursday. Dozens of protesters tried to cut a soft red and set fire to a trash can. Police have deployed another 1,500 officers and three hundred troops to Bogota.
Colombia is coming out of a five-month blockade aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus: millions of others have lost their jobs, nearly 700,000 have become inflamed with the virus, and more than 22,000 people have died from COVID-19.
The government has called on citizens to avoid acts of violence and vandalism.
“Colombia demands justice,” said Interior Deputy Minister Daniel Palacios, “but yesterday’s acts of violence also fill us with pain and therefore more lives. “
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