Thousands of people marched in Colombia against police brutality and the murders of social leaders

Thousands of people participated this Monday in different protests in Colombia, whose main demands were the end of police brutality and the massacres, also known as massacres. Two of these fatal episodes took place on Sunday and Monday, leaving a total of 10 dead.

Most of the protest took place in a peaceful manner, but various acts of violence were also recorded throughout the hours. The local environment Snail reported the attack on a bank, and protesters threw stones at the security forces present. Local media also reported that there were arrests.

The mayor of the city, Claudia López, echoed the incident and indicated that although “Bogotá respects peaceful mobilization, does not admit any act of vandalism or violence”. “All day the mobilization has been peaceful, except for the vandalism in the center, which was controlled. Whoever wants to enter the Plaza de Bolívar can perfectly do so, “he said on his Twitter account.

President Iván Duque, for his part, was more emphatic. He said he was doing a “clear and forceful rejection of any form of vandalism or aggression “and urged the authorities to” proceed with total force”. “Vandalism, violence, aggressions, we cannot tolerate them in any form of expression because to do so would be to reward illegality,” he said.

The security forces did not carry firearms during the demonstrations.

The day followed a week of violent protests against abuses by the security forces, catalyzed by the death of Javier Ordoñez as a result of one of those episodes and that left at least 13 dead in Bogotá and neighboring Soacha. In addition, more than 300 people were injured and more than 100 complaints were registered against the actions of the uniformed soldiers in Bogotá alone.

Ordóñez, 43, died on September 9 in Bogotá after a violent arrest by two police officers in question. Both subjected him to electric shocks in the middle of the public highway and later transferred to police stations where he was allegedly beaten, which ultimately cost him his life. Five other officers were also linked to the investigation.

The now former police officers, Harby Rodríguez and Juan Lloreda, face charges of “torture and aggravated homicide,” according to the prosecution’s announcement. None recognized the crimes they are charged with. However, both have already been sent to Facatativá prison. If the trial is successful, the two uniformed men could receive sentences of about 40 years in prison, according to criminal lawyers.

The death of Ordóñez has raised a wave of indignation, not only in the streets, but also in some offices of Colombian politics, which have asked the Duque government for a review and reform of the police forces, until now militarized and by both dependent on the Ministry of Defense and beyond the reach of civil scrutiny.

López, in fact, defended the need to reform the Colombian Police which, in his opinion, should be subject to the control of the citizens and ordinary justice.

The protests in turn focused on the repeated killings taking place in the country. The one on Sunday occurred in El Cauca, where an armed group fired at those attending a cockfight in an attack that also left several wounded. On Monday, meanwhile, the agency AFP reported the death of four young people, whose bodies were found in a mangrove swamp.

A local mayor’s office cited a video that circulated on social networks where the alleged murderers are seen shooting the bodies of young people from a boat. In both cases, the security forces pointed to the FARC dissidents as allegedly responsible.

According to the independent Indepaz observatory, so far this year there have been Colombia 61 massacres – killings of at least three people in a single event – in an escalation of violence that has intensified in recent months.

In the departments of Nariño and Cauca, armed groups are fighting for control of illegal mining, thousands of hectares of drug crops and the routes to transport drugs through the Pacific to Central America and the United States.

The FARC dissidents have some 2,300 members in arms and operate without a unified command.

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