Colombia: soldiers deployed in the streets of Bogotá against insecurity

Members of the military police in Bogotá, September 16, 2021. AFP - RAUL ARBOLEDA

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Since Wednesday evening, Colombian soldiers have been patrolling the streets of Bogotá to fight against urban insecurity, according to the authorities.

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With our correspondent in Bogotá,

Marie-Eve Detœuf

Urban insecurity is exploding in Bogotá.

At least that's what the mainstream media and the conservative right, who have been calling for a policy of firmness, have been repeating for several weeks.

This is why the Minister of Defense Diego Molano decided to deploy Wednesday evening, September 15, 360 men in areas deemed difficult, 2,500 others could be called in as reinforcements. 

It is true that, in this city very impoverished by the pandemic, crimes and offenses are on the rise, especially the theft of cell phones.

In 2021, 754 homicides and more than 65,000 thefts against people were recorded, according to official statistics.

But it is above all the perception of insecurity that has increased very sharply. 

The mayor of the capital criticized

Claudia Lopez

of the Green Party, the first woman to occupy Bogotá's town hall, finds herself under pressure. It was she who asked the government to deploy military police to support the police. The measure is obviously debated. The image of armed soldiers patrolling poor neighborhoods and arresting people is very strong in this country which has experienced a long armed conflict and countless human rights violations by the military. Claudia Lopez is criticized even within her party. The Colombian left considers that only social measures will make it possible to fight against insecurity. 

The presence of soldiers in the streets of Bogotá is not unprecedented: in May, they had already been deployed in the capital and the main cities of the country at the height of a social outbreak and a wave of violent demonstrations against the Conservative President Ivan Duque, who killed more than 60 people.

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• Colombia

• Criminality