Seven people were killed on Wednesday, September 9 in Bogota, during the violent riots that broke out in Colombia after the death of a man victim of a police blunder, whose video had been broadcast on social networks.
An award was offered by the Colombian Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, to who will allow “The arrest of the perpetrators of the homicide of five people during this violent day” in the Colombian capital and the neighboring town of Soacha.
Filmed arrest
The scene of the arrest broadcast on social media, in which the man on the ground and witnesses begged the police to stop brutalizing him, shocked the country. The nearly two-minute footage shows two helmeted Colombian police bikers bringing 46-year-old lawyer Javier Ordoñez to the ground and then repeatedly giving him long shocks with their electric pulse pistols.
“Please stop”, we hear repeatedly the man on the ground. Witnesses to the scene also questioned the police: “Please stop, we’re filming you” with a cell phone.
Bogota Police Chief Colonel Necton Borja said officers were dispatched after a disorder caused by “Alcoholic persons” and Javier Ordoñez tried “To hit the police” before being tackled to the ground. The colonel considered that the victim “Was subjected to a non-lethal weapon” before being transported to the police station where she presented “Medical complications”. Taken to hospital, Javier Ordoñez, father of two, died soon after.
The mayor of Bogota, Claudia Lopez, considered that this is a “Police abuse”. On Twitter she asked “An exemplary sentence” against the police and called to “A deep and serious restructuring within the police force”. The defense minister told reporters that “The two agents are already the subject of a disciplinary and criminal investigation”.
Demonstration Wednesday in front of a police station
On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered to protest outside the police station where the victim was taken before he died. Protesters sprayed the facade of the building with red paint and threw stones while chanting “Resistance”.
Police attempted to disperse the crowd with stun grenades and tear gas, but protests spread to other areas of Bogota.
Local media reported riots, fires and attacks against a dozen police stations in the north and west of the capital. Riots also occurred in Medellin, Cali and Neiva.
President Ivan Duque lamented ” abuses (…) committed by members of the public force “. “We have seen painful events today”, said the head of state, asking that “Appropriate sanctions are adopted”.
The Colombian police have in the past been implicated in several scandals of violence and the UN warned at the end of February on the killings and other alleged abuses committed by soldiers and police in Colombia.
Alberto Brunori, representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, noted that, in 13 cases of death involving state agents, “He was observed” a use “Unnecessary and / or disproportionate force”.
