PBI-Colombia accompanies Justice and Peace Commission at meeting on police violence with Canadian Embassy representative

On December 1, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted: “During a visit to Cali from @CanadayColombia at an important meeting with @Justiciaypazcol [Inter-Church Commission Justice and Peace Commission] and victims of police violence they represent, great fear was expressed for their safety and the difficulties in accessing justice that can lead to impunity in these cases.”

Two weeks ago, Semana reported that the Ministry of Defense says 21 people died during the national strike, while the Prosecutor’s Office says 32 people died and some human rights organizations say 51 people died during the mobilizations.

Canacol also recently reported that Juliette de Rivero, the representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has announced her office will publish a document that includes a record of deaths caused by the excessive use of force during the national strike social protests.

She says: “It is very important that the State investigates such cases of abuse and that they do not go unpunished.”

Beyond these fatalities, Amnesty International has also received and verified hundreds of pieces of audiovisual material on the disproportionate and repressive actions of state security forces between April 28 and October 20, 2021.

Specifically, Temblores’ GRITA Platform recorded that between January and July 2021 there were at least 103 cases of eye injuries caused by the disproportionate use of force by security forces to repress the national strike protests.

While Infobae now reports that the Attorney’s General Office has charged a patrolman and two commanders in the deaths of six people in Cali during the national strike, it’s not clear how many more police officers have been charged in the 15-45 other deaths, the 100+ eye injuries and the many other acts of documented police violence.

There is reason for concern about this.

In May, the Colombian police said that they had launched disciplinary investigations against 117 officers for possible misconduct during the social protests.

But by June, Human Rights Watch noted: “Of those officers, five had been temporarily suspended including three who were under disciplinary investigation for homicide. The rest continued to perform their duties.”

Human Rights Watch has also reported that the Attorney General’s Office had launched 24 investigations into police conduct during the 2019 protests and another 5 into the protests that took place in 2020. But despite the passage of up to two years, the organization highlighted: “No police officers had been subject to disciplinary sanctions and most cases continued in the preliminary stages.”

And even with those concerns expressed, Canada has not pushed the Colombian government harder on the issue of police impunity.

By July 14 of this year, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau had only called on Colombia “to keep its commitment to fully investigate and hold anyone who has violated human rights to account for their actions.”

It is our hope that the testimony gathered by the Canadian Embassy from the meeting with the Justice and Peace Commission will prompt a stronger and more urgent statement of concern from Canada’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly.

Tweet: “Between this Friday and Saturday, young people from various cities of #Colombia and organizations such as @Justiciaypazcol participated in the National Meeting of victims of police violence.”