Three dead in Colombia one month after the epidemic | D …

Violence returned to settle in the Cali region with at least four dead, amid protests that have been taking place in Colombia for a month and a while Tensions rise in the streets due to lack of agreement between protesters and government.

“Unfortunately, three people died. I express my solidarity and condolences to their families. This situation arose between those who blocked and those who wanted to pass. The fight resulted in this mad situation of death and pain, ”said the mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina, in a video posted by the mayor’s office.

The crimes were committed in the La Luna sector, in the center of the city and one of the places where the scenes of the greatest violence have been experienced since the protests began a month ago.

First, early in the morning, A 22-year-old who was in a confrontation between citizens who wanted to lift a blockade has died and those who supported him, in the village of Campestre, municipality of Candelaria, in the vicinity of Cali, according to the newspaper The country from Spain.

Mayor Jorge Eliécer Ramírez confirmed the death, but did not provide further details on the case. “The only thing we know is that there was a confrontation between the community and the young people at the barricade, but not who shot him down,” the official told the sites. Q`huboCali Yes The country. “Unfortunately, the young man died in the clashes that took place between the community and the young people who are on the barricades. He was 22 years old, ”Ramírez said.

A few hours later, another shootout broke out on the highway that connects Candelaria to Cali, at the height of a town called La Luna. “This morning we had unfortunate events on the highway, in the La Luna sector, which I strongly condemn. Unfortunately, three people died. This situation occurred among those who were blocking and among those who wanted to pass.” , said the mayor of Cali, Jorge Ospina, in a video posted by Caracol Radio.

Viral videos show a man who fell in a pool of blood and another nearby with a gun, harassed by protesters. Next, footage shows the alleged assailant also on the ground after apparently being lynched.

According to The country, two of the victims are believed to be young and the third an Afro-descendant man, unionized by local media and protesters on networks as a member of the technical investigation body of the prosecutor’s office who allegedly shot and killed these two young men.

The version of a witness

A member of the group “First Line”, as the young people who stand with shields in front of the mobilizations are known, told various media that a man who had been prevented from passing at a blockade point had taken out a gun and started shooting at the people who were there. This sparked a confrontation in which, according to the young man, the man, who was a member of the prosecution, continued to shoot while the others who were there threw stones at him and then lynched him to death.

Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa confirmed that the member of the Technical Investigation Body (CTI) killed in the events was Fredy Bermúdez Ortiz and that he killed several people. “It is an official attached to the CTI who, according to the information gathered so far, has shot several people causing the death of some civilians. It should be noted that this official joined the institution in 2012 and that at the time of the events he did not comply with any of his obligations because he was at rest, ”said the prosecutor. Barbosa explained that Bermúdez “was found dead at the hands of people who were at the scene of the events”.

The Director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, expressed concern about what happened in Cali and in the municipality of Madrid, near Bogotá, where there have also been strong disruptions from the start. “I urgently call for a de-escalation of the situation,” Vivanco said on Twitter.

Day of protests

Thousands of people returned to the streets of cities as Bogota, in which there are at least twenty peaceful and festive concentrations, as well as in Medellin, Bucaramanga and Cartagena, where the manifestations are still active, although with less intensity than at the beginning.

In a month of protests, 49 people have died, according to the official count. The prosecution has established that at least 17 of the cases are directly linked to the protests, but the NGO Human Rights Watch claims to have “credible allegations” about 63 deaths, 28 linked to the crisis.

The protests advanced mainly on Bogotá, Medellín and Cali in rejection of the official repression and the management of the economic emergency that triggered the pandemic. Although mostly peaceful, Friday’s protests led to clashes with law enforcement around the Colombian capital, while Cali offered images of chaos with civilians firing and “vandalism” in some neighborhoods, according to Cali. the police.

In addition to Cali, there was also violence in the municipality of Madrid, where protesters clashed for hours with the Mobile riot squad (Esmad) on one of the main roads of this municipality.

“I have forcefully called on the departmental police commander, Major Esmad, to withdraw from our population. We do not want more casualties in our population, we want them to do so. Madrid is a land of peace and we have been in these clashes for a long time today, ”said the Mayor Andrés Tovar.

The official denounced that in addition to the clashes on the main road of the municipality, located less than 30 kilometers from Bogotá, the Esmad went to “the neighborhoods”, for which he demanded that “they be withdraw immediately because they are in our territory. “And they want to avoid violence there.

Also in Popayancapital of the troubled department of Cauca, they threw themselves firebombs against the seat of the mayor’s office and other buildings, with no reports of injuries or deaths from the fire so far. “I reject that at this moment there are new incidents of firebombing against the office of the mayor of Popayán and other public and private establishments. We need this violence to stop immediately,” he said. mayor of this city., Juan Carlos Lópezand Twitter.

This outbreak of violence comes exactly one month after the start of the nationwide strike for tax reform that the government subsequently withdrew, and in a day of massive mobilisations, even though these cases were far from the marches called by the government. National unemployment committee (CNP).

On May 16, the government opened dialogues with the most visible front of the protests, but failed to reach an agreement. Union leaders and students demand guarantees for the demonstration, given the multiple excess of public force, and at the same time the authorities demand the lifting of the roadblocks that cause shortages and millionaire economic losses in points such as Buenaventura, the main port in the Pacific.

“The blockades are a threat to the rights of all Colombians (…) No one can, in order to claim rights, affect the rights of the other”, declared the president. Ivan Duque in an interview with Blu Radio. Duque eventually abandoned tax reform, but police crackdowns fueled the spirits. Today, the streets are full of young people without jobs or education who demand a more united state in the face of the ravages of covid-19.