During the National Strike at least 2,905 complaints of police abuse have been documented. | Photo: EFE
Bogota, May 23 (RHC)-- Clashes with protesters Saturday night by repressive forces of the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) of the Colombian National Police left one dead in Cali and more than 40 injured in Bogota. The demonstrations were part of the 25th day of the National Strike against the government of President Ivan Duque.
Actions of the security forces against demonstrators in the city of Cali, capital of the southwestern department of Valle del Cauca, resulted in the death of a young man and injuries to several other people.
The Justice and Peace Commission reported on its Twitter account that the autonomous medical mission located at the Portal Americas post, renamed Portal Resistencia, in Bogota, confirmed 41 young people and some children injured. Of them, at least three were reported with eye injuries.
"Medical personnel and ambulances are urgently required," the humanitarian agency wrote in its tweet. The tweet added that ESMAD troops used stun guns and pellets against young people demonstrating at Portal Resistencia.
The Justice and Peace Commission said that in Cali, ESMAD agents attacked with tear gas and arrested some 35 people, of whom 17 were still in detention around 1:30 local time this Sunday. The non-governmental organization (NGO) denounced the murder of young Jhon Erik Larrahondo, in the sector of Puerto Madero, in Cali, allegedly committed by the security forces on Saturday night.
The councilwoman of Bogota, Susana Muhamad, expressed in her Twitter account her concern "for 10 young people that more than 24 hours after being detained by the Colombian Police in the locality of Usme it has not been possible to verify their condition. And a young minor who was taken out of the city to Villavicencio."
The organization Temblores published a balance ON Friday in which it documented that since the beginning of the National Strike against the neoliberal policies promoted by Duque, last April 28, to May 21, at least 2,905 complaints of police abuse were registered.
Of this total, 855 victims of physical violence were identified; 43 homicides allegedly committed by members of the security forces; 1,264 arbitrary detentions against demonstrators and 575 violent interventions in the framework of peaceful protests.
