Xenophobic comments against Venezuelans on social media increased by 500% following statements by Claudia López

The remarks made by the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, against Venezuelan citizens living in the Colombian capital, After the assassination of police patroller Edwin Caro, during surveillance work last Wednesday, they continue to have repercussions on public opinion.

In the Citynoticias television news program, from the local television channel City TV in the Colombian capital, they consulted the organization Right to not Obey, which tracks social media posts about the citizens of the brother country of Colombia. . They said xenophobia through virtual media exploded the day López brought the charges against Venezuelans.

“We have had a 500% increase in xenophobic comments across the country. Words like plague, rats and murderers were a “hot topic” in Colombia “Alejandro Daly, right not to obey coordinator, told Citynoticias.

These reactions, reported in the Bogota newspaper, came 5 hours after Claudia López first posted on Twitter. where he said that: “The Bogotá police and the Security Secretariat confirm that, during the surveillance in Chapinero, documents were requested from the subjects who reacted by shooting. A policeman and one of the attackers died in the attack. The other Venezuelan aggressor was captured and 2 weapons were seized ”.

“At 10pm, a first spike of what we call early warning is generated in the levels of xenophobia. However, the triggers were the statements he made on Thursday and we saw a spike about two hours later, already at 9 am, we had a ‘trending topic’ in Colombia associated with immigration issues ”, Daly added.

At the time, the mayor said: “Everything is offered to Venezuelans, what guarantees we Colombians have (…) We have very violent acts by Venezuelan migrants, it is not a question of theft. First, they murder, then they steal ”.

In Citynoticias, they also pointed out that Although xenophobic comments increased after the mayor’s statements, comments in favor of Venezuelan migration also increased by 1,100%. and in defense of the citizens of the brother country.

“In other words, messages from people who criticized the statements as xenophobic and gave messages of support to migrants”Daly explained.

In Citynoticias, they recalled that these expressions of the mayor had been rejected by the director of the borders of the Presidency of the Republic, Lucas Gómez García.

“He stigmatizes a part and a population which need protection”the official said in the Colombian capital news.

Also in Citynoticias, they underlined the statement of the director of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa, who He assured that when the protection status of migrants from Venezuela comes into force, the entry of criminals will be prevented more effectively.

“This will create for us a safer country where we will have a better identification of all this infinitely good Venezuelan immigrant population, to separate them from these few cases of criminality”Espinosa highlighted at City TV

And it is that all these criticisms were joined by the former president Álvaro Uribe, who declared on his Twitter account: “The crime belongs to the person and not to the sister nationality.”

In the Bogota news, they cited figures from Migración Colombia where there is a record 1,742,927 Venezuelans in the country, 340,711 of them residing in Bogotá. In 2020, 1,535 citizens of the sister country were deported according to data from this entity.