The formidable Esmad, protagonist of the repression more …

“Dilan Cruz was killed by the police”. The phrase is multiplied on walls and T-shirts, and his name goes around the world. But After the murder of the young high school student in 2019, little has changed in the Colombian security forcesTwo years later, the massive protests that erupted over a failed tax reform are now largely against police violence. Indiscriminate use of force by the Mobile Riot Squad (Esmad) puts this Colombian police detachment founded in 2009 under surveillance. President Iván Duque announced on Sunday a reform of the police, although he continues to characterize the abuse as individual cases and not as systematic conduct. And despite the abundant evidence from NGOs.

“In my research, I developed the concept of structural police power, which comes from its control over the use of force by the State and its impact on security and order, ”he said in dialogue with PageI12 Yanilda Gonzalez, Doctorate in Political Science from Princeton University. “All leaders need the cooperation of the police, otherwise the police force can generate chaotic situations that could jeopardize the mandate and political interests of the leaders. The result is a process of accommodation between the police and the political power, where the leaders grant a high level of autonomy to the police and adopt a condescending attitude towards them. This is clear from President Duque’s speech, who while recognizing the need to “transform” the police, we observe that the emphasis continues on defending and justifying the actions of officers. This is the structural power of the police in practice, ”added González.

Endless state violence

The social crisis that has rocked Colombia for more than a month has given rise to a long series of complaints from national and international organizations due to the indiscriminate repression of the security forces, which has so far left around 60 dead and a thousand injured. “Chile is the first country that comes to mind when you think of repressive parallels. The riflemen where they shot in the eyes are now seen in Colombia, with around 65 people suffering from eye damage thought to be non-fatal. It is a very strong parallel ”, he underlined. Adam isacson, Director of Defense Oversight of the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA).

In Colombia, stories like that of Nicolas reina, a young man who lost an eye due to Esmad’s stun bomb in Bogotá. But police violence is a heavy legacy of the country. Juan Carlos Martínez Gil is a lawyer and trade unionist from Caldas whom Esmad left without an eye in 2007, amid a mobilization against the cuts in the health sector, then proposed by the government of Álvaro Uribe. Colombian justice has already convicted a police captain for the facts and his case was admitted in 2014 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), that after a long wait arrived in the country this Sunday to document and verify the human rights situation in the context of demonstrations.

Martínez Gil’s situation is rare, as complaints of police assaults generally do not advance in Colombia. One of the biggest problems victims express is identifying Esmad’s agents, as shots are fired in diffuse settings, sometimes late at night. In addition, demonstrators recently denounced that some police officers hide their identification codes or alter them. “Even when the officers are identified, it is still quite difficult to get a conviction. The classic example is the murder of Dilan Cruz in 2019. It is known exactly who the captain was who launched the non-lethal weapon that killed him, but 18 months later the case remains in military justice without progress.“, he assured in this sense Isaacson.

In order to Alberto Sanchez, historian of the Universidad del Valle and expert in security issues, Colombia has “a management of medieval justice”. “And that in cases which represent an abuse of force is much more serious. The quality of internal control in the police forces must be discussed, but the control of other bodies such as the general prosecutor’s office, the controller’s office or the prosecutor’s office is null, they do not act directly ”, he added. .

What is Esmad?

Esmad is an anti-riot unit created in 1999 under the government of Andrés Pastrana in one of the most acute periods of the internal armed conflict in Colombia.. It depends on the police and reports to the Ministry of Defense. Although founded by a transitional decree, the former president Uribe formalized it and created the course which trains the agents of the unit. Originally, Esmad’s objective was to control riots, crowds, blockades and to accompany evictions from public or private spaces, in places where there is a “possible materialization of terrorist acts and criminals ”, according to police regulations. It is made up of around 3,500 police officers divided into 23 specialized riot squads., in 17 of the 32 departments of Colombia, and in Bogotá, Medellín and its metropolitan area, and Cúcuta.

The riot squad is allowed to use “bean bags”.. It also uses 37 and 40 millimeter gas cartridges and smoke grenades, all of which are identified by police as “less lethal” weapons. In 2020, the Supreme Court of Colombia ordered President Duque and to all the authorities involved in the control of social demonstrations stop using 12 gauge shotguns.

In addition, on June 3, in the municipality of Popayán, the 10th Tribunal suspended the use in the city of the so-called “venom” system used by Esmad’s agents, until a specific protocol is developed. It is a projectile launcher which, due to the power of its impact, must be used above Esmad tanks and not on the ground, hence it can cause serious injury to protesters.

Biden order

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 55 members of Congress called on the Biden government to suspend direct aid to Colombian police. The NGO WOLA joined the request. This US government silence comes even amid a May 28 request for foreign aid from Colombia for 2022, which includes around $ 140 million to equip police.

“Esmad does not receive any money from the United States, but Colombia uses its own money to buy tear gas, poison weapons, armor or other items that it uses for self-defense and there is no No limits. We therefore call on the state to temporarily ban any sale or license, either government-to-government or through a company licensed by the United States. He be suspended until Colombia reduces its use of force and adopts better policies“Isacson noted.

What will happen to Duque’s reform?

Insisting on the defense of his security forces, the Colombian president announced that he would modernize the police force through a bill which will be presented on July 20. Alberto Sanchez underlined three elements of the proposal: “The creation of the Vice-Ministry of Citizen Security, the disciplinary status and the change in the training of uniformed, and the escalation of everything related to human rights at the management level“.

At the time of the debit, the historian hopes that the reform “is a starting point for initiating open discussions with civil society”, because “if this strike which started because of a bad discussion on the tax reform taught us anything, it is that, if there is a great need in Colombia, it is to start discussing in a more open way certain decisions of a public nature “.