A group of indigenous people from the Colombian Embera community clashed this Wednesday with members of the National Police and coexistence managers of the Bogotá Mayor’s Office, in an incident that left at least 23 injured and two detained.
The group of indigenous people – originally from the west of the country but emigrated to Bogotá due to forced displacement – was protesting the non-compliance of the mayor’s promises to relocate them after being evicted from one of the main parks in the Colombian capital.
“The absence of dialogue always generates more violence. I reject and condemn the acts experienced today in Bogotá. Several members of the Public Force and civilians were injured. Aggression against a police officer will never be a protest”President Gustavo Petro wrote on his Twitter account.
Every member of the police, every public official, just like every other person, is a subject of human rights. It is also a human rights violator who assaults a police officer in a defenseless state
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 19, 2022
And I add: “Every member of the Police, every public official, just like every other person, is a subject of human rights. Anyone who assaults a police officer while defenseless is also a human rights violator”.
For his part, the Bogotá Secretary of Security, Felipe Jiménez, considered violence “unacceptable” against the managers of the mayor’s office, when a dialogue table had already been opened.
? Serious disturbances in the center of Bogotá after the aggression of a group of indigenous people against the police
Petro and the Government condemn the use of violence against the agents: “Aggression against a police officer will never be a protest”
? Read more here ? https://t.co/kAMAOiynIMpic.twitter.com/b810i44jEC
— THE COUNTRY America Colombia (@ElPaisAmericaCo) October 20, 2022
The Sputnik agency reported that videos are circulating on social networks showing members of the indigenous community hitting uniformed police officers with sticks on the floor, and members of the ethnic group injured by the intervention of the Mobile Anti-riot Squads (Esmad).
The newspaper El Nuevo Siglo, meanwhile, reported broken glass at an Avianca airline headquarters and 23 injuries: 11 police officers, seven coexistence managers and five other “civilians”, in addition to two detainees.
Gustavo Petro visits police officers wounded by Emberá indigenous people amid the riots in Bogotáhttps://t.co/rikNNQ2jXO
— Noticentro 1 CM& (@CMILANOTICIA) October 19, 2022
Also Mayor Claudia López released videos in which the excesses were evidenced, which included at times that some 3,000 people were locked up in different buildings.
Defense Minister Iván Velásquez was another of those who spoke out against the violence: “Nothing justifies the aggression suffered this afternoon by 14 members of the National Police at the hands of indigenous people in Bogotá. The aggressors must be prosecuted and punished”he wrote on Twitter.
