At least ten people were killed after nationwide protests of police brutality in Colombia. The protests started after the killing of Javier Ordóñez, an unarmed lawyer who was pinned down by police as they shocked him with a taser for over two minutes.
Police responded to protesters with teargas and beatings. It was reported by the government that 10 people were dead in the aftermath of protests, and hundreds of civilians were reported injured. Over sixty people had bullet injuries.
Economic uncertainty related to COVID-19 has also contributed to the rise in protests, as has been seen worldwide.
The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, tweeted police were not authorized to fire on protesters and had “disobeyed direct instructions.” She also called the deaths “a massacre of our young people,” as most of the people killed were in their late teens or twenties.
Last year, Human Rights Watch said there were “worrying accounts and evidence of abuses by Colombia’s police, including arbitrary detention and brutal beatings against peaceful protesters.”
