Several injured in clashes between armed civilians and indigenous people in Colombia’s Cali

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Several authorities denounced that this Sunday alleged armed civilians shot at a group of indigenous people who were demonstrating on the outskirts of the Colombian city of Cali, leaving several wounded.

The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) reported that around 2:20 in the afternoon, the indigenous march (minga), composed of several vans, was attacked “by a pro-Uribe mob in conjunction with public forces”, who were trying to remove the blockade in that area of Cañasgordas, in the south of the city.

“We have received so far the report of 8 wounded, indigenous members of the CRIC who would have been attacked by gunfire,” reported the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, who asked to investigate the perpetrators of the attacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5WPjvD3Eus&t=3s&ab_channel=Peri%C3%B3dicoVirtual

The Cali Metropolitan Police reported that they responded to the call for help after being informed “that a group of indigenous people was attacking them”.

Videos show the indigenous people dispersing through the residential complexes shooting “with firearms and inciting terrorism; also looting houses and apartments in the sector, injuring four people with sharp weapons and blunt objects”, said the Police.

“A few moments ago, wealthy families of Cali in union with the police on Pasoancho Avenue fired indiscriminately at the indigenous guard and the community. There is talk of many wounded,” denounced Senator Feliciano Valencia, one of the voices of the indigenous community in the Colombian Congress.

The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, called on Sunday for the indigenous people to return to their territories “to avoid confrontations” with the population.

“They indeed have the right to transit through the territory, but knowing this situation of public order that is being experienced, they must also send a clear message so that they return to their territories,” said Duque.

The CRIC considers that the attack of civilians, which was recorded in multiple videos published in social networks, responds to a “tactic of repression that differs the attacks from the uninformed to the armed civilians who act as paramilitaries”.

AGGRESSIONS AGAINST CIVILIANS

This is not the first incident recorded in these twelve days of protests in Colombia. This Friday night there were reports that several people in a high-end car opened fire on a group of demonstrators in the La Luna sector, in the center of the city, injuring at least two people, one of them seriously.

It was precisely the indigenous guard (the indigenous people’s defense entity) who was in charge of stopping this episode in the absence of public forces at that point.

Also, in the city of Pereira, in the west of the country, there have been several incidents of civilians shooting at demonstrators who were peacefully protesting in events sadly reminiscent of the darkest episodes of Colombian paramilitarism.

Hector Fabio Morales, a 24-year-old Colombian man, died last Friday night after being shot at by alleged civilians. At the same time, Lucas Villa and Andres Felipe Castaño were seriously injured and are in critical condition from another attack of the same characteristics on May 5.

At least 27 people have died during the days, as reported on Friday by the Attorney General’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office in a document in which they clarified that of those deaths, 11 are directly linked to the events, seven are “in verification.” There are nine that are not related to the protests.

However, the NGO Temblores has documented 47 fatalities (35 of them in Cali), 1,876 cases of abusive use of force, at least 28 victims of ocular aggression, 278 injured, and 963 arbitrary detentions against demonstrators, as well as cases of sexual violence against 12 people.

In addition, according to the report of Temblores and the Institute for Peace Studies (Indepaz), in more than 50% of these homicides, family members and witnesses have pointed to the security forces as the perpetrators.

The mobilizations began against the already withdrawn tax reform of President Iván Duque’s government but continue against an attempt to reform health care, police brutality, and the complex situation of insecurity.