Riots broke out in Bogota after police violence on September 10, 2020. -
STR / AFP
Violent riots broke out this Wednesday in Bogota (Colombia), killing five, after the death of a man victim of a police blunder, whose video had been broadcast on social networks.
Colombian Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo has pledged a reward to those who will help "arrest the perpetrators of the killings of five people on this violent day" in the Colombian capital and neighboring town of Soacha.
A "police abuse" according to the mayor of Bogota
The scene of the arrest broadcast on social media, in which the man on the ground and witnesses begged the police to stop brutalizing him, shocked the country.
The nearly two-minute footage shows two helmeted Colombian police bikers bringing 46-year-old lawyer Javier Ordoñez to the ground and then repeatedly giving him long shocks with their electric pulse pistols.
"Please stop," we hear the man on the ground repeating.
Witnesses to the scene also called out to the police: "Stop please, we are filming you" with a cell phone.
According to Bogota's police chief Colonel Necton Borja, the officers were dispatched after a disorder caused by "alcoholic people" and Javier Ordoñez tried "to hit the police" before being knocked down.
The colonel estimated that the victim "was subjected to a non-lethal weapon" before being transported to the police station where she presented "medical complications".
Taken to hospital, Javier Ordoñez, father of two, died shortly after.
The mayor of Bogota, Claudia Lopez, considered that this is "police abuse".
On Twitter, she called for "an exemplary sentence" against the police and called for "a deep and serious restructuring within the police force".
The Minister of Defense told the press that "the two agents are already the subject of a disciplinary and criminal investigation".
Desde @Bogota ofreceremos a la familia de Javier asistencia judicial para que haya una condena ejemplar, no solo a los responsibles directos, sino para que haya una reforma estructural que prevenga y sancione el abuso policial.
Esto no es de manzanas podridas.
La vida es sagrada!
https://t.co/xzfMgK3w0v
- Claudia López 👍 (@ClaudiaLopez) September 9, 2020
"Unnecessary and / or disproportionate use of force" according to the UN
On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered to protest outside the police station where the victim was taken before he died.
The demonstrators sprayed the facade of the building with red paint and threw stones, chanting “resistance”, one journalist noted.
Police attempted to disperse the crowd with stun grenades and tear gas, but protests spread to other areas of Bogota.
Local media reported riots, fires and attacks on a dozen police stations in the north and west of the capital.
Riots also occurred in Medellín (north-west), Cali (south-west) and Neiva (center).
President Iván Duque deplored “the abuses (…) committed by members of the public force”.
"We have seen painful events today," said the head of state, calling for "appropriate sanctions to be adopted".
Colombian police have in the past been implicated in several violence scandals.
The United Nations warned at the end of February about the killings and other alleged abuses committed by soldiers and police in Colombia.
Alberto Brunori, representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, noted that in 13 cases of death involving state agents, "it was observed" use " unnecessary and / or disproportionate force ”.
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