According to information from the Police, the flames have razed a good part of the roof of the Palace of Justice of Tuluá. | Photo: larazon.co

Bogota, May 26 (RHC)-- In the middle of a day of protests in Tuluá, department of Valle del Cauca, a fire broke out at the Palace of Justice of the municipality.

According to police information, the flames have devastated a good part of the roof and the second floor of the judicial institution of this city located north of Cali.  On Tuesday, Tuluá experienced confrontations between the public forces and groups of protesters and episodes of urban chaos, in which young Camilo Arango died as a result of police repression.

"Attacks like those of tonight in Tuluá stop being vandalism and become terrorist acts. Peaceful protest is legitimate, violence is a crime," considered the Colombian Minister of Justice, Wilson Ruiz, who condemned the attack.

There was also an attack against the Attorney General's office in Tuluá. However, in the latter case there was no major damage beyond the breaking of some glass on the façade.  In spite of the condemnation by government officials in relation to the burning of the Palace of Justice, Senator Griselda Lobos de Comunes called on those who hold the demonstrators responsible not to lie.

'Who benefits from burning the Palace of Justice in Tuluá? Surely not the protesters. Stop lying to the country and stop looking for pretexts to justify violence and repression', remarked the congresswoman.

Cali and the region of Valle del Cauca and neighboring Cauca have been the epicenter of protests and social mobilizations against President Ivan Duque, which have left at least 43 dead and hundreds missing.

The social outburst, which calls for a fairer and more united country in the face of the economic deterioration that worsened the pandemic, has so far left more than 2,000 injured.  During Tuesday night, in Bogotá new episodes of repression by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) and the police against demonstrators were reported.  

The Comunes Party (the former rebel group FARC) denounced that police forces carried out arrests of young people in the neighborhood La Igualdad, Kennedy, in this capital.

The representative to the Chamber of Congress for this political force, Sergio Marín, denounced that the police launched gases inside a residential neighborhood where there were children and senior citizens.