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Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo acknowledged this Tuesday in a Congress session that the death of lawyer Javier Ordóñez, 46, in Bogotá, which sparked a wave of protests, is the responsibility of the police who tried to arrest him a week ago.
“Some policemen killed a Colombian citizen, disgraced the uniform, violated the rules of ethical behavior, ignored the entire training effort of the institution,” said the head of the Defense portfolio during his speech as a “guest” in a virtual session of the Senate.
Trujillo assured that “decisions are already being made” of the case and that the two police officers involved in the arrest with excessive violence of Javier Ordóñez, in which they repeatedly used a Taser electric pistol a week ago, were suspended from service, while that five others are also removed from office while the investigation is being conducted.
“And of course the Police are willing to continue contributing to the better progress of the investigations so that the criminal authorities make the corresponding decisions according to the level of responsibility they have, and in the same way they have been acting with other police officers who may be allegedly involved in violations of the law, “the minister said in the session that lasted almost seven hours.
The death of Ordóñez unleashed a wave of protests in various parts of the country that last Wednesday and Thursday left 13 dead, ten of them in Bogotá and three in the neighboring town of Soacha, for which the Police are also blamed for having fired to contain the vandalism into which the demonstrations degenerated.
While acknowledging this situation, Trujillo defended the institutional work of the Police and said that just as those responsible for Ordóñez’s death will be punished, those responsible for the wave of vandalism that destroyed “half of the infrastructure will also be sought. security of the Colombian capital “.
The minister regretted that the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, strong critic of the police action, had not been invited to the session, since it would have “been very useful in this purpose of identifying ways to listen to her about what she experienced, about the reflections what he did, about the impression he now has about these sad events. “
Opposition calls for Trujillo’s resignation
At the beginning of the virtual session, senators related to the government of the Colombian president, Iván Duque, and others from the opposition intervened, who called for the resignation of Trujillo, whom they consider to be “politically responsible” for the police violence.
Opposition senator Juan Luis Castro Córdoba, from the Alianza Verde party, was blunt in saying that Trujillo “should resign because the situation of insecurity in the country has been quite delicate.”
In the same direction was Gustavo Petro, founder of the Colombia Humana movement, who said that “in a decent country the defense minister (…) should have resigned” after incidents like those of last week.
Following in the wake of the above was Senator Aída Avella, president of the Unión Patriótica (UP) party.
“You are not respecting the Constitution of this country, and that is why with sadness I have to tell you that I met you as a democrat but now you are disrespectful of the Constitution and therefore, Mr. Minister, you should resign,” Avella snapped.
The senator joined the voices calling for reforms to the Police so that this armed civilian body is closer to the citizenry.
“In this Congress we are going to have to restore its civil character to the Police. That is what the country needs, that is what the country claims,” he said in a vehement tone, adding that “at this time the population feels completely unprotected and the citizens defenseless. against the arms of the State “.
Black september
Another opponent, Senator Antonio Sanguino, from the Green Party, considered that what happened in what he called “black September” in Bogotá was an “exceptional” event and that “firearms were used by members of the Police during the protests. and civilians who participated in those actions. “
Several senators such as Ernesto Macías, from the Democratic Center party, also came out in defense of the Government, who assured that “he hears political leaders call for unity, reconciliation and forgiveness, but the accusations come next.”
Macías stressed that the indignation cannot be “selective”, alluding to the fact that there are sectors that reject what happened last week but do not do so when events such as the terrorist attack by the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) occur on 17 January 2019 against the Police School in Bogotá, which left 22 cadets dead and 66 injured.
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