Those are turbulent times in Colombia. Citizens of the South American kingdom have been protesting throughout the US For extra than three weeks, first of all, in reaction to a proposed tax increase.
There were reviews of beatings and killings of protesters via the country’s police, and a few protesters have attacked members of the police themselves. Fifty-eight people have died because protests commenced, including 19 associated with the demonstrations (one policeman and 18 protestors or bystanders), in keeping with human rights watch. The final deaths are still being reviewed.
In an interview final week, Colombian president iván Duque advised Forbes that he supports peaceful protests and that the police’s killings are below investigation.
“if there may be any conduct through a member of the general public pressure that is going past the law, no longer best can we explicit our condemnation, but we [also] want to have speedy investigations and sanctions,” Duque stated.
However, he appeared to suggest that the police moves may additionally have been justified, in his view. Saying that the 14 instances of deaths or beatings being investigated via the attorney popular’s workplace “presumptively are associated with levels of war of words in violent scenes wherein there was vandalism.”
The president did admit that there could be wrongdoing utilizing the police. “the police on an annual basis adopt extra than 30 million police techniques,” Duque stated. “are there cases of abuse within 30 million police techniques? Yes, there are—there might be.”
Others describe the scenario in a whole lot of starker phrases. “hundreds of heaps of humans were killed in horrendous situations in Colombia in the beyond.
However, I have in no way visible a scenario just like the one this is growing nowadays,” stated josé Miguel Vivanco. Government director of the Americas department of human rights watch. “You have got huge demonstrations faced through excessive tiers of police brutality throughout us of a.”