Announcing the outcomes of the report on Monday, Chief investigator Carlos Negret accused Colombian National Police (PNC) of committing a “bloodbath.”
“The PNC overtly dismissed any precept of proportionality or absolute necessity in utilizing deadly power,” in line with the report.
“Who gave the order, why have been they taking pictures in opposition to unarmed protesters, whose liable for the ache and for the lives misplaced — these are the questions we weren’t capable of reply,” Negret stated at a press convention on Monday.
Negret, who served as Colombia’s ombudsman from 2016 to 2020, additionally reiterated the UN definition of a bloodbath, saying it “takes place when three or extra individuals are murdered in the identical incident and by the identical perpetrator.”
The impartial report was commissioned by the Mayor of Bogota, Claudia Lopez, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to research the deaths of no less than 14 individuals throughout anti-brutality protests that engulfed the Colombian capital on September 9 and 10, 2020.
The protests erupted after footage of cops tasering legislation pupil Javier Ordonez — who had been detained for allegedly breaking Covid restrictions — went viral.
Ordonez died just a few hours after he was tasered. PNC patrol officer Juan Camilo Lloreda Cubillos was sentenced to twenty years in jail and fined roughly US $370,500 for his loss of life.
The report stated that “the occasions of police violence, abuse and brutality that begun within the early hours of September 9 with the homicide of Javier Ordonez by the hands of National Police officers triggered one of the crucial severe episodes of human rights violations within the historical past of Bogota.”
In a press release to CNN, the PNC stated that that they’re “largely all for having justice delivered and people liable for these occasions…have to be punished.”
“The full weight of the legislation should fall,” it stated.
The occasions surrounding Ordonez’s loss of life have drawn comparisons to the homicide of George Floyd within the United States — a person who was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and whose loss of life sparked an rebellion in opposition to police brutality and racism.
Mayor Lopez was seen crying when the report findings have been learn.
“This report is painful for the soul, nevertheless it’s a needed step to rescue and recuperate the state of our democracy,” she stated.
It’s unclear if Lopez herself will face authorized motion as the highest officer accountable for public security in Bogota on the time of the protests.
Earlier this 12 months, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accused Colombian safety forces of utilizing “disproportionate and extreme power” on protesters demonstrating in opposition to a collection of points starting from earnings inequality and allegations of police brutality.
The protestors have been met with violence that left no less than 25 individuals lifeless. Eleven of these deaths concerned police forces, in line with the Colombian Interior Ministry.