Protestors took to the streets in Villa Luz, a working-class neighbourhood in Bogotá, and destroyed the regional police holding station where the offending officers had taken Javier Ordóñez, after picking him for breaking social distancing restrictions and public drinking. The father of two suffered multiple instances of cranial trauma in the aftermath of being subdued, tasered and detained by local police. Protestors chanted “Cerdos!” (Pigs) or “Cerdos asesinos!” (Murderous Pigs) as they marched in solidarity, galvanized by this most recent tragedy. To many, this was a clear case of police abusing their authority, and a glaring example of an institution that has become a rogue force, the by-product of the several decades of armed civil conflict that has terrorized Colombia’s rural areas. Protests spread early, lasting for days, throughout Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquillá, Bucaramanga, Popayán, Ibagué and Pareira.
Sometime before midnight, on Sept. 9th, 2020, Javier Ordóñez and two friends, Juan David Uribe and Wilder Salazar, left the social gathering taking place at his apartment to restock on alcohol. Bogotá’s quarantine restrictions, which were eased two weeks ago after a six-month countrywide lockdown, still prohibit the purchase of alcohol between 9 p.m. and 10 a.m., as well as the consumption of alcoholic beverages in public or commercial spaces.
Upon their return to Ordóñez’s residence, Uribe and Salazar say they were accosted by a patrol unit composed of Officers Julian Camilo Lloredá and Damián Rodrigúez on 77th Avenue in Villa Luz, Endigátiva. Uribe told Reuters TV that police said they would be fined for breaking social distancing rules and drinking in public. The officers then asked for their identification papers, which by all accounts the trio produced. Mr. Ordóñez was overheard asking the officers to give him a citation, to which one of the officers responded that he “would not be spared on this one.”
It remains unclear exactly how things escalated from a verbal altercation to the officers deciding to subdue Mr. Ordóñez. Police Colonel Alexander Amaya told BluRadio that the officers had been responding to a call about a dispute in the area and that at some point, the suspect had become aggressive. Officer Lloredá told the Colombian daily El Tiempo that he had seen a man dressed in black in an altercation with a woman upon arriving at the scene and that he had identified Ordóñez as someone with a reputation for starting fights in the neighbourhood. According to Lloredá, when the officers attempted to engage in conversation, Ordóñez responded rudely and tried to walk away. He then allegedly changed his mind and challenged the officer to a fight. Officer Lloredá claims that he was punched in the face, to the right cheekbone, by the suspect, and then received a blow to his back, causing him to drop his stun gun. Ordóñez then allegedly attempts to escape, upon which Officer Lloredá promptly picks up his taser and deploys his first electric cartridge. Police officers, patrol cars, and mobile anti-riot squads in Columbia have been equipped with tasers since 2012.
A video of Javier Ordóñez’s assault, filmed by Juan Uribe, was uploaded to various social media platforms barely hours after the incident took place. It was met with outrage and anger on social media, causing #ColombiaLivesMatter trending, and initiating several parallels to the recent protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis. The video runs over five minutes and begins with Javier Ordóñez, on his knees, surrounded by the officers who quickly grab him and turn him over onto his back. Within seconds, Ordóñez receives a series of electroshocks from officer Lloredá’s stun gun, each lasting anywhere from three to 16 seconds. Throughout the painful ordeal, Ordóñez is often seen lying face down on the ground, pleading with the officers, “Por Favor!” (Please).
After the third and longest electroshock, David Uribe also attempts to appeal to the officers, asking them to let Ordóñez go and stop tasing him, “No le haga mass!” (No more). Uribe can also be heard repeatedly telling the officers that he is recording the incident, “Los estamos grabando!” (You are being recorded.). Throughout the clip, Officer Lloredá can be seen repositioning his TASER, model 4200X2, on Ordóñez’s body for a better contact surface. At the two-minute mark, a third officer arrives and takes over for Officer Rodrigúez, pinning Ordóñez down aggressively and eventually handcuffing him. By electroshock number eight, roughly three minutes have elapsed, and Ordóñez is still lying on the ground, now panting and clearly in distress, while officer Llareda towers over him. The video then shows a man in a yellow jacket, presumably, Wilder Salazar, is also apprehended before we see two officers dragging an unsteady Ordóñez to a nearby police wagon.
In an interview, Uribe told Reuters TV that he repeatedly asked the police to take his friend to a hospital. According to Uribe, upon his arrival at the Villa Luz Immediate Action Center (CAI), a small police outpost with local jurisdictions, Ordóñez was already unconscious. Again, Uribe asked the police that his friend be taken to a hospital to receive medical attention. According to Salazar, who was also in custody, police kept assaulting Ordóñez during the trip in the police vehicle and continued at the CAI until Ordóñez lost consciousness. There are differing accounts regarding exactly how Ordóñez ended up at the Santa Maria del Lago clinic in the early morning hours of Sept. 10th. The police claim Ordóñez was still alive when they released him to medical care. However, it is still being disputed whether Mr. Ordóñez had any vital signs upon his admittance.
A preliminary medical assessment identified cranial trauma as the probable cause of death. According to the National Institute of Medicine, which issued the report, the deceased suffered nine fractures of the face and skull, several injuries to his ribs, multiple electroshock burns and a ruptured liver, most likely caused by blunt force trauma. Reuters reported the family were told by medical professionals that Ordóñez had been tasered at least 12 separate times and that four was about what an average person could endure. Javier Ordóñez, 46, was the father of two teenage boys, aged 11 and 15, who eventually learned the gruesome details of their fathers’ death on social media. He had studied aeronautical engineering and was currently one exam away from finishing a Law degree. He had by earning a living driving a taxi at the time of the incident.
Defense Minister Trujillo, who oversees the militarized police force, launched an internal investigation and announced that the two offending officers were fired on Friday, Sept. 11th, after being suspended along with five other officers connected with the incident. The Prosecutor’s Office will also investigate the case. Ordóñez’s family lawyer said she had provided the Justice system with six photographs taken at the clinic that showed significant bruising around Javier Ordóñez’s left eye and wrists, as well as a wound on his right leg. Officer Lloredá later told El Tiempo that Javier Ordóñez’s reputation as a repeat offender is why he had been taken into custody, rather than the hospital, immediately following the altercation. Another of Bogotá’s citizens, Marco Valencia, has also come forward alleging he had been assaulted by patrolman Lloredá prior to the incident casting doubt in the officer’s rendition of the events.
Footage shows the classic images many viewers have become used to seeing of late: the destruction of property, flash-bang grenades exploding in the street, protestors spray painting riot shields, smashed storefronts and burning dumpsters. Protestors erected roadblocks to protect themselves and are seen throwing rocks and bottles at riot-clad ESMAD before being dispersed by tear gas. Several testimonies of indiscriminate use of firearms by law enforcement against civilians have surfaced in local media. Unidentified individuals proceeded to ransack some 68 Command Action Centers (CAIs), small police outposts with local jurisdiction, 17 of which were set on fire. Civilians are wary of CIAs or Immediate Reaction Units (URIs), depicted as centers of systematic intimidation, torture, rape, mistreatments and abuses of various kinds.
The eruption of violence often occurred after sundown, following peaceful daytime demonstrations of grief and hope, as vigils and cacerolazos (customary banging on pots and pans) lingered on city blocks. Via her Twitter account, the newly elected Mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López Hernández, asked citizens to respect an informal curfew of 7 o’clock. Instead, angry protesters threw rocks and bottles and were met by law enforcement units equipped with batons, tear gas, live ammunition, and flash-bang grenades. Choppers were reported circling overhead, while police shots were being fired. Things got hairy in some rougher neighbourhoods, where certain people had begun returning police fire.
According to Defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, the altercations left at least 13 people dead, mostly in downtown Bogotá and the neighbourhood of Soacha. Nearly all the victims were under the age of 30. Among them, Jaider Alexander Fonseca, 17, father of an infant; Sebastian Sanchez, 17, hit by indiscriminate police gunfire; Cristian Rodrigúez, 21, fell into a coma at Engativá hospital after being shot by an unidentified man in black, and was later pronounced dead after being transferred to another clinic; Juliana Ramirez, 18, a psych student who was hit by a stray bullet while walking home with a friend.
Estimates place the number of injured civilians at 400, 68 of which sustained gun-related injuries and flooded emergency rooms. Around 300 wounded public security personnel were also reported wounded. Estimations from official sources and human rights activist organizations say between 84 and 138 people were arrested, of which 45 have been released. Banks, department stores belonging to transnational corporations and over 70 vehicles were also damaged, including 9 TransMilenio Line busses, with many of them set on fire. Mayor López reported that 46 city blocks had been destroyed, a sombre reminder to the days of the country’s armed conflict, and that there had been 119 complaints of police abuse documented in the last 48 hours. Certain people claim that police had targeted Human Rights activists and tampered with their electronic devices, potentially seizing or destroying evidence.
Minister of Defence Carlos Trujillo announced that reinforcements to the city’s law enforcement numbers, following the first night of protests, would include 850 police officers repatriated from other regions and 300 soldiers from the 13th brigade to reinforce the 1,000 officers already in Bogotá. The army deployment, commanded by Brigadier General Óscar Reinaldo, has allegedly been providing security detail for TransMilenio vehicles, a private company in which the government has a 1% stake in the profits. Mayor López condemned the violence and what she labelled as indiscriminate use of deadly weapons and asked citizens to refrain from acts of vandalism or retaliation. “Destroying the city will not put an end to the abuses of law enforcement.” Mayor López said there had been 137 complaints of police brutality in Bogotá over the last year. Human Rights Watch Americas also documented worrisome accounts and evidence of police abuse, including arbitrary detentions and brutal assaults on peaceful protestors. The President of the City Council, Carlos Fernando Galán, gave an interview to Il Tiempo, where he stressed that the trust had been broken between the Colombian people and the institutions of law enforcement and public security, “There are several successive cases of police abuse occurring in multiple cities across the country, but particularly in Bogotá, where there has been impunity.” Galán also stated that the vicious cycles of violence, one side reacting and escalating responses from the other, had left the population feeling unprotected from vandals while at the mercy of a militarized law enforcement force.
A group of Congressmen have drafted a reform bill to address police abuses, with a focus shift on recruitment, training and access to weapons. Opposition Senator Inti Asprilla told Al Jazeera that there has always been a structural problem with law enforcement in Colombia, which has only deteriorated over time. He suggested further police training on a proportional use of force, education regarding Human Rights standards and protocols, and the implementation of an internal discipline system that would be accountable to municipal and democratic institutions rather than the military. On Thursday, General Moreno said the military was in the process of investigating nearly 2,000 allegations of abuse involving roughly 1,400 uniformed members. On Friday, demonstrators in various neighbourhoods around Bogotá attempted to convert burnt CAI outposts into an impromptu library, a dance hall, and a community vigil for a few hours. They painted murals and hung compassionate messages. According to Vice News, Police quickly reclaimed all three precincts, evicting individuals with batons and tear gas. The shrines to Javier Ordóñez was left intact in Villa Luz.
On Sunday, the Mayor hosted a commemorative event with a live telecast, which included a concert and testimonies from the victims’ families. The day was intended as a collective act of mourning, to honour the victims, communities, and promote forgiveness. President Iván Duque was noticeably absent from the proceedings, and protests continued in Medellín on Monday, Sept. 14th, with 2,000 police and military reinforcements. Apologies don’t quell discontent. In July, the New York Times reported on illegal settlements built in the city’s pits and surrounding areas. People who lost their jobs due to the quarantine, including menial workers who have been finding themselves evicted from their homes and virtually destitute, sometimes overnight. Police regularly dismantle settlements using their precarious building conditions as a justification to enforce public safety, but for many of these squatters, there is nowhere else to go. Cities are divided into sectors, or Estados, based on income, where the rich live above and the poor below. Squatters and illegal settlements are referred to as Estado 0.
Among the hardest hit are the vulnerable members of the lower and middle-class, along with students. University enrolment is down, and dropout rates are high, with some institutions already collapsing financially due to fixed expenses resulting in massive layoffs and payment delays. Although online is better than nothing, learning often doesn’t work without connectivity, and in most low-income housing areas, online access is sporadic at best. Tourism, like everywhere else, has virtually dried up, exasperated by the economic shutdown. A growing number of women have had to resort to sex work to feed their families, and birth control options are difficult to find. Single mothers are lining up at food banks; farmers are losing their crops due to a lack of buyers and cash flow. More importantly, perhaps, people are losing their hope and their opportunities for a better future. Most of those who have returned to work have had to adapt to living with half of their previous income. The growing social and economic disparity may end up stunting an entire generation, perhaps two. Near Bucaramanga, Venezuelan migrants who fled the social and economic crisis over their home country for Colombia four years ago are now returning home en masse. Most have lost everything, sometimes for the second or third time. They are heading back to family members, who say they can help support them during these trying times. Some of them have walked for weeks, camping in public parks or on the side of highways, waiting for days for busses to take them the last 200km to the border.
Last year’s month-long protests against President Iván Duque’s economic and social policies have only met a tepid response due to the pandemic. Political and security analysts have indicated that recent events can escalate to a more significant event, possibly triggering a renewal of social and political unrest. Two days before the September protests, Labour unions were reportedly trying to stir up public solidarity, and a General Strike is scheduled for Sept. 21st, 2020. Containment fatigue is showing, however, and the fact remains that many Colombians earn a living on the informal market, which has raised concerns about a second wave of COVID-19 infections in a country of about 50 million people is already on the verge of an economic crisis. The most recent outpouring of public discontent comes at the tail end of years of anger over the widespread intimidation, extortion, and abuse of power at the hands of the country’s security personnel. According to the North American Congress on Latin America, ex-President Alváro Uribe tweeted his support for a national government curfew, armed forces in the street, including armed vehicles and tanks, the deportation of vandals, and the capture of the “intellectual authors.” He insisted the crackdown was a better alternative than “deaths, wounded police, the destruction of CAIs, and the risks to the TransMilenio and Medellín tramway lines.”
Nov. 2019 Protests and the Death of Dilan Cruz
At the end of last November, more than 200,000 Colombians took to the streets in widespread protests that lasted for several weeks. It was the most substantial public display of anti-government sentiment the country had seen in decades. What had initially begun as a labour union strike shifted into a rallying cry for indigenous groups, students and retirees. The popular uprising had been showing signs of winding down when it was reignited by the death of Dilan Cruz, 17, who was shot in the head by an anti-riot police projectile on Nov. 25th, 2019, during an anti-government demonstration. It is estimated that four civilians and three police officers lost their lives during the civil unrest. The public’s demands included pressuring President Iván Duque to step up the implementation of the 2016 peace accords and address issues related to economic reforms and rampant corruption. The strike was initially planned for October 2019, following rumours of pension cuts by the government, which never materialized. Students had already been protesting education cuts at the time.
El Tiempo recently reported that the police captain who had shot Dilan Cruz, Manuel Cubillos, had been transferred to an administrative unit pending an investigation. The Supreme Court announced that it would review its decision as to whether the case would remain with the Military Criminal Justice system or be transferred to the Prosecutor’s office, as petitioned by the deceased’s family.
For several months there have been reports of uptake in violence targeting indigenous and community leaders, including a spate of killings in recent weeks, that amounted to 35 youths dead in 12 days. Other concerns included the deteriorating health system, insufficient pensions, indiscriminate acts of violence, extortion, systemic racism and sexism, and government agents’ corruption. In one protestor, “Colombia is tired of injustice, bad governance and social inequality.” Dozens of Bogotá’s shop owners walked out in protest last August, condemning continued lockdowns in seven neighbourhoods, as thousands of informal vendors continued to peddle their wares. In 2011, there was a similar public outcry after a 16-yr-old graffiti-artist was shot dead by police after spray painting a bridge. The offending officer was sentenced to 37 years in prison in 2016. To add insult to injury, El Tiempo recently made public an investigative report that revealed the officer involved in Dilan Cruz’s death was never suspended. Instead, the officer was transferred to an administrative unit — a decision justified by Defence Minister Trujillo by the lack of malicious intent and the fact that the officer had seemingly followed security protocols.
Descriptions of Colombia’s police force involve low pay, under $500US a month for a 2nd-year officer, and extortion is a recurring complaint. Recruitment has been depicted as favouring quantity over quality. Civilian deaths attributed to law enforcement since the beginning of the pandemic include Harold David Morales Payares, 17, who was beaten and shot in Cartagena after being asked to wash police motorcycles; Anderson Arboleda, 21, who was beaten to death in front of his mother’s house in Cali; Nestor Novoa, an elderly street vendor who was killed by police in May; and Duván Mateo Aldana, 15, who was shot in the throat while being evicted from an illegal settlement in Soacha.
Paramilitary Factions, Criminal Investigations and Partisan Politics
Though the 2016 Peace Accord, signed under President Juan Manuel Santos and who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize that year, had initially garnered much hope, things quickly unravelled as the National Liberation Army (ELN) had severed negotiations and attacked police outposts along the Colombian Coasts, and bombed oil pipelines, in September 2018. Several smaller gangs and criminal or paramilitary organizations have been reported filling the gap left by the withdrawal of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC) and other demobilized groups that have taken refuge in Cuba and Venezuela. According to the NYT, President Duque’s attempts at negotiations have involved threatening Havana and Caracas to be held accountable for sheltering terrorists. In January 2019, a car bomb killed 22 police cadets and injured another 60 during a graduation ceremony at the Santander Police Academy. In February 2020, charges were laid against thirty-four individuals, including four alleged commanders of the ELN’s central command unit (COSE).
Among the other groups vying for power and territory in the Colombian countryside are the Rastrojos, a drug cartel considered to be one of the most powerful transnational criminal syndicates in the country, with ties to the Norte del Valle cartel, Mexican cartels and Havana, and who were believed to have been mostly dismantled; but also the Gulf Clan, the Gaitanistas Self-Defence forces, the Popular Liberation Army (ELP), among many other splinter groups and enterprising criminal associations. This has potentially triggered a recurring struggle for territory and influence that leaves countless civilians in the crossfire. On Sept. 16th, in Barranquillá, began the trial of drug lord ‘Marquitos’ Figueroa for the murder and kidnapping of Óscar Rodrigúez nine years ago. The murder investigation uncovered a scheme to purchase votes for President Iván Duque, at the behest of former President Alváro Uribe, by a late drug trafficker named Jose Guillermo Hernandez, alias Ñeñe.
The current President, Iván Duque, a right-wing conservative who came to power in 2018, is widely considered Uribe’s protege. The Supreme Court’s recent order to detain Uribe at the beginning of August also sparked protests throughout major cities. According to Al Jazeera, activists told the media that they had already noticed an increased police presence in central public squares. Support rallies were held in Uribe’s hometown of Medellín. Alváro Uribe is a household name that divides and polarizes Colombia. For some, he is a patriotic hero, someone who took a hard stance against leftist rebels and guerrillas; to his detractors, he shadowy figure behind numerous human rights abuses and the political patron of far-right paramilitary groups that have terrorized rural areas for five decades during Colombia’s civil conflict. Never before in the country’s history has a Head of State been detained, and its judiciary has a poor track record when it comes to the powerful and influential being held accountable for crimes. Pending the investigation for electoral fraud and witness tampering, Alváro Uribe has been placed under house arrest to prevent witness tampering and obstructing justice. He broke the news himself via Twitter. The ex-President stepped down from his Senate post with the Democratic Center Party amid allegations that included pressuring witnesses to recant their claims regarding his involvement in creating specialized paramilitary groups in the 1990s. With the proceedings only beginning, any proposal of labour or pension reforms likely runs the odds of taking a backseat to the ex-President’s case.
In 2017, roughly 13,185 FARC members formally demobilized as a show of good faith for the Peace Accord processes. However, several hundreds of them also walked away - refusing to abide by the agreement. According to the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, approximately 830 had taken up arms again by 2019. El Tiempo, Colombia’s largest daily newspaper, reported in March 2020 that a criminal alliance had been concluded between Gentil Duarte and two other FARC dissident groups. Estimates place this new force at about 4,600 men, becoming Colombia’s second-largest illegal army about a year’s time. The ELN’s recruits are estimated at 5,000 armed men. In February 2020, the ELN announced a nationwide armed strike, ordering civilians to stay home for 72 hours. According to El Tiempo, in early September of this year, two videos began circulating portraying alleged FARC dissidents reviving the “war tax” collection in territories under its control, a direct break of the Peace Accord agreements. Authorities reported the presence of organized actors, described as hooded men, who they allege are tied to FARC dissident groups or the ELN. Defence Minister Trujillo indicated that the attacks on the CAIs during the September protests had happened in a systematic and coordinated manner. RCN Noticias, a National television news network, also claimed that the simultaneous destruction of the CAIs was not isolated incidents and alleged that several armed collectives had recently been recruiting new members in high schools and universities. Documents uncovered in a military raid earlier this year revealed that ELN Central Command and Jaime Galvis Riviera, alias Ariel, were operating based on a strategy to bring guerilla warfare to city centers by vandalizing security infrastructure in urban areas. El Tiempo reported that the authorities worked on identified at least four groups with similar structures and operational motives as the Chavista collectives, who are considered an ‘integral part of Nicolas Maduro’s strategic defence.
The UN defines massacres as a killing of three people or more. Giovanni Alvarez Santoyo, the Chief Prosecutor for the Special War Court, told the NYT that in Colombia, they have long served as retaliatory measures, ways to punish individuals for collaborating, or being suspected of working for, different gangs, mafias, or law enforcement. Violence is also used as an intimation tactic, keeping entire Campos, pueblos and barrios in check. Barriers to Reporting “Most foreign journalists can’t stay in the country for more than two years. Only a few have visas that allow them to stay longer or have obtained residency,” writes Adriaan Alsema, for Colombia Reports, a left-leaning crowd-funded English news site, founded in 2008 by the Dutch journalist and editor. Alsema has “security concerns” lately. He says his protection request was purposefully mismanaged last year when he reported a death threat, lost in a migration system under an inexistent casefile number, which was later repeatedly “misplaced” by Medellín police. He says his data was manipulated in the government’s migration system, and he is at risk of losing his visa renewal and trumped criminal charges. Last week alone, to his telling, four reporters were arrested, and three female colleagues were either subjected to torture. According to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), at least 20 press freedom violations had taken place while Colombia’s most recent protests.
In June 2020, Amnesty International published a report by Danelly Estupiñán that many of Colombia’s regional community leaders have lived under threat since the signing of the peace accords in 2016. “There has been no reduction in the systematic violence we face, despite the pandemic. More than 100 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia so far in 2020, at least 28 of them since the Mar. 25th decree which imposed a mandatory quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID 19”, writes Estupiñán.
According to the publication El Tiempo, between January and April, Colombia was averaging 15 murders of social and community leaders a month. Over the past year, the UN Mission in Colombia has documented 33 massacres involving paramilitary forces and organized crime. The majority of the victims were Indigenous, of Afro-descent or campesinos. While many of these crimes result from criminal elements trafficking narcotics and running illegal gold-mining operations, these tragedies are being linked to the government’s failure to implement human and social security as part of the Peace Reforms. It remains to be seen if last week’s protests will serve as the opening act to the renewal of open hostilities in Colombia, as economic stagnation and decline embolden the palpable frustration of a citizenry subjected to yet another cycle of loss and despair in the thick of the ongoing pandemic.