Night of chaos in Bogotá includes setting fire to police posts with officers inside

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A mob set fire to a police station in Bogotá on Tuesday, May 4, with between 10 and 15 officers inside – who managed to escape the flames – and at least 15 other police posts were targeted by vandals in actions the city’s mayor, Claudia López, described as “brutal”.

“The 22 human rights commissions we activated have been preventing and protecting abuses to citizens, but tonight’s violent escalation is brutal,” the mayor said on Twitter.

Referring to the 15 police officers, López said the vandals “tried to burn them alive” at the Immediate Attention Command (CAI) in the La Aurora neighborhood, in the south of the Colombian capital; she added that another 15 of those posts were “vandalized” and there are “police officers shot” and “wounded by stabbing”.

“Bogotá suffers tonight (Tuesday) the attack of organized criminals who are being confronted by our armed forces. We emphatically reject these attacks against members of the police force,” said Colombian President Ivan Duque at midnight.

In the face of the overflowing violence, López asked the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, that the armed forces “help guard” the police detention centers where 2,825 people are being held to “prevent them from putting the lives of those deprived of their freedom at risk”.

The violent protests began last April 28 and up to today have left 19 dead, according to the Ombudsman’s Office, a figure that social organizations such as Temblores would raise to 31.

Likewise, Temblores denounced that at least 89 people have disappeared, of which only two have been found.

The assault in Bogotá took place on the eve of a new day of protests called for this Wednesday by unions and social organizations against the Government’s economic policy.

POLICE STATION FIRE

According to authorities, the police CAI in the La Aurora neighborhood was burned when there were between 10 and 15 agents inside, five of whom were injured.

“Prompt recovery to our policemen. Thanks to the community that intervened so that they would not be incinerated inside the facilities of the CAI Aurora by social misfits,” said the commander of the Bogotá Police, General Óscar Antonio Gómez.

“At this hour, there is an escalation of violence in the city; here in Biblioteca Tintal, they have just incinerated a SITP bus (Integrated Public Transport System) and in other parts of the city,” said the Secretary of Government of Bogota.

CHAOS AND CONFRONTATIONS

The confrontations began in the afternoon in several sectors in the south of Bogotá. They spread to other areas where social organizations have denounced excesses of the Police Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (Esmad).

One of the most difficult situations was experienced in Portal Las Americas, in the west of the city, where clashes lasted for hours, at least three people were injured, and a bus was burned, according to authorities.

There were also disturbances in the Castilla neighborhood where the Esmad repressed demonstrators and the CAI were attacked.

In other cities such as Cali, where an undetermined number of people have been killed during protests, clashes continued even though the day before, five people died and 33 more were injured, according to the Mayor’s Office.

POTS AND PANS AND VIGILS

Although violence has been the constant feature of the demonstrations, on Tuesday night, the sound of pots and pans rang out in Bogota, and there were peaceful actions in dozens of places where demonstrators gathered to reject police repression and the violence that is bleeding Colombia.

Today’s protests in the capital were joined by Dominican friars who marched through the city’s streets with a flag of Bogotá and a sign that read “Love one another”.