RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At least 27 people have died in Colombia “in the framework of the protests” that began last April 28, while there are still 359 cases reported as disappearances that are in the “process of verification and location”, the Attorney General’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office advised on Friday, May 7.
In a joint report, the agencies specified that of the total number of homicides reported, “11 are directly linked to the facts”, seven are “in verification,” and there are nine “not related to the facts”.
However, the official figures are far from what is claimed by NGO Temblores, which claims that since the beginning of the demonstrations, there are “37 victims of homicidal violence presumably by the Police”.
While the government seeks to find consensus with different political, economic, and social sectors, the protests, which began against the now withdrawn tax reform, continue against an attempt to reform the health system, police brutality, and the complex situation of insecurity.
MISSING
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office stated that they have received 548 reports of “presumed missing” and that 189 people have already been located, so there are still 359 “in the process of verification and location”.
“Be advised that we continue permanently with the verification, this taking into account the large volume and the short time that has been had. Within 24 hours, it will be updated again,” both agencies specified in their bulletin.
VIOLENT NIGHT IN CALI
Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, remains the epicenter of social protests and police brutality on the tenth day of protests across the country, with road blockades choking some establishments and the arrival of goods.
According to social organizations, the violence of the last days in the streets of several neighborhoods has claimed the lives of more than a score of people in a city to which the national authorities sent some 1,200 military personnel to restore order.
Tonight, the capital of the department of Valle del Cauca (southwest) is experiencing a new day of violence which, so far, has left two people wounded in a shooting at a medical mission, according to international organizations.
“We follow with concern reports of shootings tonight in different parts of Cali, where there are at least two wounded. We urge respect for the medical mission,” Juliette de Rivero, a representative in Colombia of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned on Twitter.
That city has been the center of attention due to police excesses and images of violence of such magnitude that even Nicolás Guerrero, son of a cousin of Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina, is one of the fatal victims of the demonstrations.