Colombia’s police are under immense pressure over mounting evidence and testimonies indicating anti-government protesters in Cali were executed and buried in mass graves.
The security secretary of Colombia’s third largest city, Carlos Alberto Rojas, on Monday announced a “study” into the alleged disappearance of people during anti-government protests in Cali.
Rojas took to the press after a report by human rights organization Justicia y Paz, which claimed it had received reports of mass graves in the cities of Buga and Yumbo “where the bodies of many young people were taken.”
The people who have shared their testimony indicated that the youths were detained, some of them have been reported missing by their friends or families, and in Guacari, in Buga, 45 minutes from Cali, they were executed. Some of the survivors of the executions were found with gunshot wounds in health centers and today are terrified and in hiding. Today, May 23, a more delicate version of the operations of the groups of armed civilians protected by the police became known. They are said to have set up a “chop houses” in the exclusive area of Ciudad Jardin.
Justicia y Paz
Human rights NGO CODHES last week reported that 112 people have gone missing in Cali since the beginning of anti-government protests throughout Colombia on April 28.
White supremacy in Colombia | Part 4: Racist Cali’s ‘genocide risk’
“Fake news” claim retracted
The latest evidence of the Cali Police Department’s alleged mass killing of civilians emerged Sunday when the bodies of two men wearing the same clothes as two men who were arrested on Saturday were found outside of the city.
The local police department and the Security Secretary initially said that the claims police the remains belonged to the detainees were “fake.”
CW:// Police violence
These are images circulating in Colombia from a possible case of a pair of young persons being taken away by police and then found dead in roads outside the city supposedly due to a automotive accident. Look closely at what the persons are wearing #SOSCali pic.twitter.com/hlSfEeJEMV
— Red Condor Collective (@RedCondors) May 24, 2021
Colombia state terror campaign broadcast live on Twitter
Cali vows to ‘study’ missing persons, ignores
Cali’s Security Secretary removed its “fake news” claim on Monday, but refused to release the identities of the detainees, which would prove they were still alive.
Rojas also refused to refer to the alleged mass killing of people taking part in anti-government protesters since April 28.
The Missing Persons Search Unit stressed that “it is essential for the State to ensure that deprivations of liberty, whatever their legal form, are carried out in strict compliance with the limits and guarantees contained in the norms of international law under the principles of transparency and publicity.”
In consideration of the current context, we recommend that the measures taken to date be strengthened in order to consolidate a unified registry of deprivations of liberty, which would contribute to the delimitation of the universe of persons who are alleged to have disappeared.
Missing Persons Search Unit
Rojas said that “the competent authorities are conducting the relevant studies to clarify the facts and conduct investigations” related to the “disappearances during the National Strike.”
Entities of the Inspector General’s Office are currently conducting a search based on the available information.
Cali Security Secretary
Cali’s former police chief was forced to resign last week after evidence indicating that the police were colluding with armed civilians who involved in multiple apparent terror campaigns to quell the protests.
