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Ten people died and hundreds more were shot while dozens of police posts were destroyed between Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Bogotá during protests against police violence, according to the official balance.
Demonstrations and riots broke out after the police assault on Javier Ordóñez, a 46-year-old man who died after receiving repeated shocks to the ground with an electric weapon, in circumstances that authorities are investigating.
The attack was filmed by one of his friends.
This Thursday the mayor of Bogotá, an opponent of the government, denounced that the police who were the target of the complaints for this action then used force and firearms indiscriminately.
“There is solid evidence of the indiscriminate use of firearms by members of the police (…) What kind of training do they receive to have that absolutely disproportionate response to a protest? Lopez said.
In the capital, strong clashes were unleashed that were registered on cell phones, as well as a chain of attacks on command posts known as Immediate Attention Centers (CAI).
One of the injured is Frankpierre Charry, 23, who according to his family was caught up in one of the clashes in the south of Bogotá. Today he is on the verge of death in a hospital.
“The police started shooting like crazy, he ran off, went down a block, met two policemen who were hiding and shot him,” his mother Blanca Clavijo told AFP.
“Doctors say they shot him in the back, from very close, hitting his stomach and damaging his intestines, colon”, added the woman disconsolate.
In the recordings shared by witnesses on social networks, terrified people are seen fleeing amidst rounds and shots. “They hit him! They hit him!” a man is heard saying while another, bloodied, lying on the ground, is dragged by protesters.
The national government early reported seven dead, 56 police headquarters “vandalized” and 70 detainees. In the last balance the dead increased to 10.
On his side, López spoke of 362 injured: 248 civilians and 114 uniformed. And he assured that six of the dead had gunshot wounds and were between 17 and 27 years old.
“No more, please”
The aggression that uncovered anger and repression occurred at dawn on Wednesday in the northwest of Bogotá.
The sequence of about two minutes shows two officers when they reduce Ordóñez, who, already on the ground, is given at least five shocks of several seconds with an electric weapon.
“Now, please, no more,” Ordóñez is heard pleading repeatedly. The man was then taken to a police post and from there to a clinic where he died.
The ongoing investigations and autopsy must determine whether Ordóñez received more punishment in the CAI to which he was taken, as his family suggests.
The troops that detained Ordóñez have already been suspended, the defense minister said.
The case evoked that of African-American George Floyd, who died of suffocation in Minneapolis in May at the hands of a white police officer who ignored his pleas while immobilizing him in detention.
After his death, strong protests were unleashed in the United States that still continue.
In the alleged homicide involving Colombian soldiers, there are still several questions to answer.
In a first version the police said that the uniformed They answered a call for disorders caused by alcohol consumption. Ordóñez allegedly attacked the uniformed officers who responded using his Taser weapon.
This Thursday, President Iván Duque promised an investigation “with total rigor to have absolute certainty about the facts.”
However, He rejected the “stigmatization and call assassins” of the uniformed for specific “responsibilities” of some of them.
But the mayor of Bogotá insisted on a “deep restructuring” of the police.
According to López, so far this year there have been 137 complaints of excessive use of police force in Bogotá.
“There is a structural problem of cases of police abuse and, furthermore, impunity,” complained the mayor.
In the midst of new calls for demonstrations, the government also announced that it will reinforce the force in Bogotá with 1,600 police and 300 soldiers.
Two of the police abuse scandals previously occurred in Bogotá as well.
In November 2019, Dilan Cruz, An 18-year-old young man who was participating in an anti-government protest was fatally wounded in the head with a pellet shot by a member of the Bogotá riot squad.
And in August 2011, an urban artist identified as Diego Becerra died after a police officer shot him while painting graffiti in Bogotá.
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