Colombia prepares for a day of massive protests a month after the epidemic against Duque – telam

Colombia’s social epidemic, the largest in its recent history, dates back a month this Friday, and a day of massive anti-government protests is expected at a time when, with no end in sight, security forces continue to crack down on the movement. which left dozens dead, thousands injured and hundreds missing.

Walks, roadblocks, cultural and musical events, “sit-ins” and cacerolazos are scheduled this Friday in Colombia, all variants of the demonstrations convened by the National Unemployment Committee (CNP), the conglomerate of organizations that promotes the demonstrations.

The government of President Ivn Duque, meanwhile, is ambiguous about the intention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to visit the territory to alleviate the frequent complaints of institutional and police violence against demonstrators.

Vice President and Chancellor Marta Luca Ramrez said on Thursday that the IACHR could come to Colombia “without any problem,” a change of position from what had been announced days earlier, but the president was more elusive and avoided to give dates, just a day after a harsh report from the agency on abuses committed by the security forces.

The visit of the IACHR remained in the center of the scene because the body had asked to arrive in Colombia and the government preferred to wait until the end of June for this step, information that Ramrez herself gave to the delegates of the organization in the United States, but Thursday evening, after the critical document, he seemed to change his mind.

The agency visit is essential when new victim figures of all kinds are known.

The mayor of Bogota, Claudia Lpez, gave a report to a representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the NGO Indepaz published his, which speaks of around 60 dead, almost 40 cases of sexual assault of various forms committed. by state security forces.

The report also records 715 people injured by “the disproportionate actions of the national police and in particular the mobile riot squad (Esmad)”.

At least 60 people were murdered in connection with the protests, according to Indepaz, and at least 43 of those crimes involved the alleged perpetrator of the Force Publique, who is also responsible for 46 victims of eye injuries.

The NGO which defends human rights maintains that this methodology, also present in the social epidemic which began in Chile in October 2019, shows that it is not a collateral damage to the control of the disturbances in the demonstration, but rather of a “modus operandi” of the security forces. in some countries in the region.

On Thursday, the government won a small – and predictable – triumph when Defense Minister Diego Molano succeeded in passing Congress a vote of no confidence encouraged by the opposition, which accused him of giving ” war ”to social mobilization.

Support for Molano added 69 votes from senators – from the official alliance: Democratic Center, U Party, Radical Change, Conservatives – against 31 from the opposition, and the minister celebrated on the Twitter network that with this decision, the upper house “has expressed its support for the soldiers and police who offer their lives for Colombia.”