Colombia takes to the streets to protest against police brutality
"Please, no more, I'm drowning," were the last words of Javier Ordoñez before he died early Wednesday morning in police custody in Bogotá, Colombia. This event has unleashed a wave of protests against police brutality in the South American country in the last 48 hours. The riots have already left at least ten people dead and more than 400 injured, 66 of whom were shot dead after their lawyer was killed. "A massacre against young people", in the words of the mayor of the capital, Claudia López.
According to witnesses, Ordóñez, a 43-year-old taxi driver and father of two children aged 15 and 11, was partying with his friends and had drunk alcohol, the sale of which is restricted as part of the measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. When they came out on the street they were stopped by the officers and fined, which led to an argument between the police officers and the group of friends.
Ordóñez died after being subjected to repeated electric shocks with a taser-type weapon, while being pinned to the ground, in a southern neighbourhood of the Colombian capital, as recorded on a video, and before being transferred to a clinic where he arrived without vital signs. His death has revived the debate on the excessive use of force by the police force in Colombia. The mayor of the capital, Claudia López, has called on Iván Duque's government for structural reform of the police force. "Mr. President Duque, you are the commander-in-chief of the police force, please order your members not to use firearms. This instruction was not known yesterday," said López, visibly upset.
During the last 48 hours the disturbances, which began with stone throwing and fires at the Police Immediate Action Commandos (CAI), continued with tear gas confrontations and destruction of public transport in Transmilenio. Riot squad tanks trying to stop the protests by demonstrators and the sounds of gunfire took over the streets of a city that had been under compulsory quarantine for almost six months by COVID-19. The videos that were circulating on social networks on the long Wednesday night predicted that there would be deaths, and these were confirmed in the early hours of the morning in the city's hospitals.
Most of the fatalities have been young people shot in the street. This was the case of Cristian Hernández, who according to his family was returning from work and was shot in the face and died in the street, as recorded. Julieth Ramirez, a 19-year-old student of psychology and English, was also killed by a stray bullet while walking home. During the demonstrations Jaider Fonseca, 17, was also killed after four shots were fired.
For sociologist Nathalia Ávila, the behaviour is the result of deep citizen dissatisfaction that began to be expressed in the national strike at the end of last year, but which was defused by the pandemic. "Discontent has been brewing over government reforms, the death of social leaders and massacres," she told Atalayar. Sergio Guarín, director of Reconciliation Colombia, agrees, and explains that the pandemic has postponed a social climate of agitation and protest that had begun in 2019, and that it is still to be dealt with adequately.
After the riots, the Minister of Defence, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, said in a press conference that it was a night of vandalism and spoke of 93 police officers injured and 56 police facilities destroyed, 22 of which were set on fire. The solution for the government is the militarization of the city. "The police force in Bogotá will be reinforced with 750 uniformed officers, plus 850 who come from other regions of the country; 300 soldiers from the 13th Brigade of the Army will support the work of the National Police in the country's capital," the ministry reported.
On social networks, the term Colombian Live Matter has gone viral, alluding to the term used in the United States, Black Lives Matter, to reject police brutality against the black population, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis. But the reality is that the excessive use of force has stirred up public discussion since the wave of protests against the government of Ivan Duque at the end of last year.
After the riots, Defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said at a press conference that it was a night of vandalism and spoke of 93 At these marches in November, a shot from the Police Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (Esmad) killed Dilan Cruz, a 19-year-old youth who became the symbol of social mobilisation during a peaceful protest in the centre of Bogotá. In January, in the inaugural speech of Mayor Claudia López, she promised that no authority would be allowed to abuse its power against the legitimate expression of citizens to go out on the streets to protest peacefully.