In a 63-page document, the delegation in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights cited “well-founded reasons” to maintain that the authorities incurred in the “unnecessary or disproportionate use of force” in the mobilizations from April 28 to July 31.
The abusive action of state troops led to homicides, arbitrary detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, and acts of discrimination and racism.
Based on interviews, forensic verification of videos and contrasted consultation of sources, the office verified 46 deaths, 44 civilians and two policemen, in the framework of the protests in Colombia.
“In at least 28 cases the alleged perpetrators would have been members of the Public Force” and in “10 they would have been non-state actors,” the report reads. In the other cases, the UN adds, it could not identify the alleged aggressor.
The Colombian prosecutor’s office handles, on the other hand, a number of 29 homicides related to social unrest.
However, it was not until April that an unprecedented national protest movement was formed, mostly peaceful, which lasted for months and involved the main Colombian cities.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets every day in rejection of the tax hike proposed by the government to alleviate the debacle of the pandemic, and which was finally shelved under popular pressure.
The mobilization, led by young people without jobs or studies, exposed the social and economic crisis accentuated by the health emergency in one of the most unequal countries in the world and with an informality of around 50% of workers.
Hardly repressed, the demonstrations calling for a more solidary state turned violent and incorporated the demand for a reform of the police.
Visibly annoying the conservative government of Iván Duque expressed that it does not share “many statements” contained in the UN investigation.
“We cannot in any way allow them to disqualify the institutionality and the rule of law,” said the vice president and foreign minister, Marta Lucía Ramírez, in an interview with Blu Radio.
In its report, the UN also said that among the abuses it was able to verify are those of “16 victims of sexual violence” at the hands of the security forces.
Likewise, it documented “serious acts of violence” against state agents, in addition to the destruction of public and private property.
Based on its findings, the UN made several recommendations to the Colombian State, including “a profound transformation” of the Esmad, the police force in charge of controlling and dispersing the protests.
According to the United Nations, the authorities must review the protocols that this police force follows on “the use of force and less lethal weapons and ammunition so that they comply with international human rights norms and standards.”
In addition, “a broad debate should be promoted in society about the reform of the National Police, including the mechanisms of control and accountability” and the “relevance” of moving from the “Ministry of Defense to a Ministry of civil authority” .
Vice President Ramírez insisted on her rejection of the fact that reports such as that of the UN “are generating a general distrust of the institutions,” and emphasized that the government has “zero tolerance for the violation” of fundamental guarantees.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had already denounced in July the “disproportionate” reaction of state forces to the protesters.
Source From: Ambito
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