“He died as he lived, resisting,” says the mother of the artist killed in Cali, as the report claims the government used a systematic “pattern of violence” in the city.
Nicolás Guerrero, a 26-year-old artist from the Colombian town of Cali, took to the streets on May 2 to protest the lack of opportunities he saw in his country. He had a circle of relatives in Spain that he hoped one day. But later that night, after the insurrectionary police introduced a brutal crackdown, he discovered a lie on the sidewalk, seriously injured. He died a few hours later in hospital.
“I enjoyed Cali, I enjoyed Colombia and the only thing I wanted was to improve life here,” Laura Guerrero, Nicolás’ mother, told the Guardian at a police kiosk in Cali that was set on fire during the protests and has since been changed. through locals. In a library in honor of his son. “He died as he lived, resisting. “
According to a report released Friday by Amnesty International, the police violence involving young people from Guerrero is not a remote incident, but a component of something systemic and institutional.
“The documented events were not remote or sporadic, but reflect a trend of violence on the part of the Colombian authorities, who responded to the protest with stigmatization, criminalization, illegitimate police repression and militarization,” says the report, entitled Cali: In the Epicenter. of repression. Amnesty also described “acts of urban paramilitarism through armed civilians. “
Protests in Colombia began in April expired, first in opposition to a tax proposal that has since been scrapped, though they temporarily turned into a national howl of outrage over entrenched economic disparity. Protesters remained in the streets for nearly two months. , with marches taking up positions almost every day in major cities. Some protesters erected roadblocks and damage to personal and public property.
The police reaction has been brutal, with at least 44 protesters killed and 1,650 injured across the country. A recent human rights commission in Colombia, composed of delegates from thirteen countries, found that the government used complicated counterinsurgency tactics to combat the country’s leftist insurgent teams. opposed to the protesters.
“People want to know what’s going on here, because we’re making up the dead,” Guerrero said. “The dead are real. “
Amnesty International said the practices described in its report were representative of many testimonies from protesters, human rights defenders and organizations, and that it had digitally verified audio-visual material.
The report includes an investigation of 3 occasions that took a stand in the protests. The first took up position in Siloam, a hillside favela in Cali that was raided by police on May 3. Then, on May 9, a caravan of indigenous protesters was attacked by armed forces. civilians in front of police, injuring 11 protesters. The third was a raid on a community near the Universidad del Valle, carried out by armed civilians, allegedly in coordination with the police.
“Under the pretext of restoring order, many others have been horribly injured and dozens of young people have lost their lives,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, in a preview of the report’s release. what happened in Cali shows the violent reaction of the government and the genuine objectives of this repression: to sow fear, discourage nonviolent protests and punish those who clamor to live in a more just country. “
The fact that Cali — the vibrant, bustling and self-proclaimed hotbed of salsa — is the height of this violence and repression comes as no surprise to some analysts, who characterize the unrest there as a cocktail of social tensions.
“Cali has a giant young population and this social uprising was led by excluded youth,” said Alejandro Lanz Sánchez, director of Temblores, a Colombian human rights monitor. He added that Cali has also long been a center of drug-related violence. and inequality, two points of the protests.
Reports of police violence are discouraging for those hoping for a long-term nonviolent for Colombia when the country signed a historic peace deal with the leftist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), in 2016.
Many hoped that the agreement, in addition to officially ending five decades of civil war that has killed another 260,000 people and forced more than 7 million to flee their homes, would usher in a new bankruptcy in which Colombians would resolve their differences with words. than bullets.
Implementation of the deal failed under the leadership of President Ivan Duque, who took office in 2018 after campaigning on a platform skeptical of the peace accords.
“Let’s not say that these demonstrations are also against violence and in favor of the implementation of the peace agreement,” Lanz Sánchez said.
The Colombian government has shown unwavering resilience in the face of mounting foreign criticism. The reforms were announced in early July, adding new uniforms and human rights education for rebel police, though critics say the changes are cosmetic rather than practical.
Earlier this week, the border government risked a diplomatic outcry when it deported Rebecca Linda Marlene Sprößer, a German citizen who participated in protests in Cali and posed for photographs with the so-called “Front Line,” an amorphous organization of protesters who fought with police. Prior to the 20 July marches, police cracked down on suspected Front Line members, whom they had classified as “terrorists” in the past.
Reacting to the criticism, Colombian police said they had opened 157 investigations into allegations of officer misconduct, adding 11 for homicide, but also complained of “fake news,” noting that two officers were killed and 35 others shot dead during the operation. Protests.
For Laura Guerrero, the findings of human rights observers and the government’s intransigence are surprising.
“For a long time we have had to live with abuse of authority, indiscriminate shooting, disproportionate use of force and live ammunition in front of others throwing stones,” said Guerrero, a few blocks from where her son was killed. It would be fire and blood, because here it is less difficult to rain bullets than to put food on tables. “