As the Colombian general strike enters its third week, English language media continue to publish generalized descriptions of widespread violence that has left at least 42 dead across the country. “Riot police had not only used tear gas to disperse protesters but in some cases shot live ammunition,” says the BBC. Per the Washington Post, “Videos shared on social media show police using what local activists and international human rights groups say is excessive force against protesters.” My local rag has said nothing at all.
These PG sound bites hide the ground truth in Colombia: when night falls, the rule of law is indiscriminate police terror, up to and including summary executions of civilians. Remarkably, several suspected executions have been caught on video, which I will be analyzing in this post.
Why is this important?
Summary executions by police are a ghastly symptom of profound problems in a country. While typically the domain of autocratic governments as part of an overarching strategy of terror, even the spontaneous occurrence of extrajudicial killings in otherwise democratic societies points to larger problems within the social contract. Although the focus here is not to dissect the complex social history of 20th century Colombia, the snapshot of Colombia today is one of a country of armistice, rather than peace; wherein former combatants have merely transformed themselves into arms of civil society; where armed groups, both ideological and criminal, still hold dominion over large swathes of the country; and where truth and reconciliation efforts struggle to keep pace with a rapidly decaying ceasefire.
More concretely, framing deaths during the national strike as integral to the protests themselves not only feeds into the protest paradigm but obfuscates the reasons behind their sustained nature. While the economic strain of the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be deemphasized, by framing the ongoing national strike merely in economic terms, one fails to account for its continuation after the immediate demands of the national strike were met. Rather, egregious police misconduct fuels protest movements; in Colombia, sanitized headlines serve only to further the mischaracterization of violence that daily resembles less western democracy and more a totalitarian state that rules through terror.
President Iván Duque Márquez has denied allegations of systemic violence, stating:
“There have been acts of abuse of force,” he said. But “just saying that there could be any possibility that the Colombian police will be seen as a systematic abuser of human rights — well, that will be not only unfair, unjust, but without any base, any ground.”
However, video evidence shows not only multiple suspected incidents of extrajudicial killings—it also reveals patterns and commonalities that suggest these practices are much more common than the limited evidence may suggest.
Methodology
I manually searched and collected videos of possible incidents of summary execution or extrajudicial killing from conventional media, social media, and Whatsapp. I call a “summary execution” any event captured on video that demonstrates police firing a lethal weapon at a civilian who is either in custody, incapacitated, or was in police detention immediately prior to the shooting—that is to say, the use of lethal force outside of the accepted legal framework for doing so. These criteria exclude videos of civilians injured or killed in the course of mass protests, videos that do not show the actual mechanism of injury, and known cases of police brutality for which video documentation is not publicly available. I do not demand proof of death to establish that the actions captured on video occurred, and at bare minimum they constitute attempted extrajudicial killings.
Although what appear to be summary executions likely make up a minority of the total number of violent killings that have occurred in the context of the national strike, they are noteworthy in that they display a chilling intentionality. Unlike the use of live ammunition to disperse protestors, there is no pretext of officer or public order upon which apologists for police violence can fall back. Executions occur under cover of darkness by flying columns of officers on motorcycles. A disturbing pattern that is repeated frequently is the execution of civilians immediately following their release from police detention, after any threat they may have posed to the police had been neutralized.
Often, videos circulate first on whatsapp before being made more publicly available on social media sites. The first appearance of a video on social media may significantly postdate the actual occurrence; the original poster may also not be the one who filmed the video. Duplicates of the videos, with often conflicting metadata, are common. Timing the first emergence of videos is also complicated by the removal of flagged content from some video sharing platforms; video records of violent acts, by their very nature, are more prone to suffer deletion.
In spite of these uncertainties, I believe the videos speak for themselves as to the nature of police brutality in Colombia. I present them below with my interpretation added.
Incident 1: Multiple civilians shot at close range while fleeing
I start with the longest video, which shows police shooting at no fewer than five separate individuals. Three of the shootings are directly caught on camera.
Other postings of this video suggest it takes place in Cali, where both protests and the police response have been most intense. I saw this video first on May 5. The video shows at least a half dozen police detaining, beating, and shooting at a number of civilians exiting a commercial building through the front entrance.
As the video begins, multiple gunshots are heard as civilians race to clear the area. Police on foot and on motorcycles move in from the right. Officers fire at unseen targets to the left. Click the image to the left to open the gallery and read detailed notes on the video.
Civilians are seen to be fleeing a building in the background, as police give chase. In the foreground, at 0:25 minutes a police officer is seen apparently shooting a person in the back from point-blank range.
At the same time, in the background, a different officer appears to shoot a separate person in the back, also at close range.
Some time later, an officer opens fire at a group of civilians fleeing the scene. It is not clear whether or not this is one of the officers who have already shot at civilians, or a different one.
Throughout the video, civilians are restrained and beaten by police. At 1:22, two individuals are forced to the ground by police, where they suffer further blows while surrounded by at least three officers. Beginning at approximately 2:00, they get up and begin to walk off-screen, escorted by police, when one of them is shot in the back at close range.
Analysis
One person was almost certainly shot in the back by police (02:05). Two others were very likely shot at very close range (00:25 and 00:27), and in two other cases, the police were seen firing at unseen targets (00:12 and 01:02). Over 45 gunshots can be heard throughout the entire video. The seemingly casual demeanor of the police officers involved suggests that in no instance did they feel as though they faced imminent mortal danger. Instead, the shootings—when coupled with the indiscriminate beatings throughout the video, as well as the failure to permanently apprehend any of the civilians in question—are far more reminiscent of extrajudicial killings.
None of the shootings appear to be necessary, nor proportional, to respond to the threat posed by the civilians present. The three observed shootings (00:25, 00:27, and 02:05) appear to occur under circumstances where civilians were attempting to leave the scene, where no immediate threat to themselves, other civilians, or police officers is readily apparent. In one example (02:05), a civilian under police control seems to be released from detention, only to be shot in the back almost instantaneously. I classify all three as evidence of summary executions by Colombian police.
Although the quality of the video prevents further identification of the officers, at least two different officers are seen to shoot civilians, suggesting that this behavior is not an individual phenomenon.
Incident 2: Civilian detained, beaten, then shot
This video, which also involves mounted police, shows a person subdued by police before apparently being shot as they drive away.
I have seen it mentioned that this was Cali, but have no other information. The earliest version I have seen posted was from May 5.
In the video, the victim is seen sitting on the sidewalk against a short wall. He is surrounded by about ten police on motorcycles. An officer wearing a helmet and a reflective vest attempts to smash a bicycle and begins to kick the victim; he is joined by another officer without a reflective vest shortly thereafter. As the motorcade departs, another officer in the passenger seat of a motorcycle fires a single shot at the victim.
Analysis
This video is similar to other videos that have emerged of the police engaging in “drive-by” type behavior of civilians who are not subject to police detention. One video that was circulated widely in the first week showed police either hitting or using an ECD against a pedestrian.
Incident 3: Detained, released, targetted
Officers on motorcycle order a passenger out of a car, assault him, release him, and shoot at him.
This video was attributed to the Policarpa neighborhood of Bogotá on the night of May 5, although there are doubts about the time and location.
The video shows four police officers—two in yellow reflective jackets, and two in black riot armor—that stop near a vehicle. The officers order the occupants of the vehicle to exit the vehicle, whereupon they detain the occupant in the passenger seat. After throwing them to the ground and beating them, the police release the victim, before promptly shooting at the victim as they leave.
Analysis
The pattern is disturbingly similar to that seen previously—an individual is detained briefly enough to receive a beating by police, released, and immediately shot while fleeing. The casual, deliberate actions of the police throughout the event do not suggest that they feel under imminent threat. Although some comments that accompany this video indicate that the individual was not hit by the shot fired by police, no independent verification is yet available.
Additionally, the stopped vehicle appears to bear the emblem of the Misión Médica, which identifies the vehicle as part of the Colombian health care system. Although lacking context, the actions in this video appear to demonstrate interruption of transport and possibly aggression against either a medical worker or patient. Within Colombia, such acts might be considered as an attack against protected health care infrastructure and personnel, which are treated seriously in the context of the Colombian conflict.
Incident 4: Shot while running away
In contrast to the previous incidents, the killing of Marcelo Agredo by police on April 28 was extensively documented. The Colombian outlet Cuestión Pública has done an excellent job compiling several different videos to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding his death.
As can be seen in the video montage above, Agredo is seen to kick a police officer on a motorcycle only to immediately run away when the officer draws his service pistol and fires two shots. At this point, the officer dismounts and fires a single shot, which struck Agredo in the head. His injuries proved fatal.
Analysis
Cuestión Pública was able to interview several of Agredo’s family members. Notably, Marcelo’s brother-in-law is a member of the Colombian National Police, and gave a breakdown of the incident to which I cannot add anything. My translation follows.
…I feel as though I am caught in the crossfire between [the police] and my family, but I believe that the responsibility lies solely with my colleague and everything he did wrong. Without the principle of proportionality that we are obliged to follow, shooting a civilian is a homicide (emphasis original). And if an unarmed protestor attacks us, the protocols say that we respond with a tonfa [police baton] targetting areas where the muscles soften the blow and will not cause broken bones. We cannot respond to a kick with a shot.
We absolutely cannot shoot at an unarmed protestor with the SIG Sauer 2022, our service weapon, because it is both accurate and lethal at a distance of up to 50 meters. Marcelo was only a few steps away from my colleague when he started shooting.
The principle of legitimate defense, which protects us in these circumstances, covers violence committed in the line of duty while responding to the same level of violence. It does not seem to me as though this description applies as a justification for the shot that killed Marcelo, which seems more like retaliation for being assaulted—a retaliation that must not exist, according to a fragment of our code of ethics that we were reminded of in the morning of April 28, before we left for patrol during the protests.
I also don’t understand why my colleague did not wear a reflective vest, which is mandatory so that we may be identified, nor why the officer who shot Marcelo, and his colleagues, neglected to give first aid—we are prohibited from doing that. They should have helped Marcelo upon seeing that he was injured and they also should have verified if there were minors in Marcelo’s group, and if there were any, they should have asked for child protective services, as the regulations dictate.
Everything was done wrong. But my colleague still can do one thing right: give himself up. In any case it will be easy ot find him, given that every day we file service records, we sign activity reports before leaving an operation, and we keep an arms registry that accounts for the lot numbers of our ammunition.
For this reason, I hope that the [National Police] cooperate so that there may be justice and truth. And, that we may speak in a different way of those who died in the protests, so that we don’t label them all as vandals or criminals—because my brother in law Marcelo was not.
Summary
What is arguably most damning about these incidents is how many similarities they share with each other. In almost all cases, civilians are shot while fleeing. Detentions occur with no apparent purpose aside from delivering kicks and punches. Victims are released from detention only to be immediately shot. Police are then seen to leave the scene themselves. It defies logic that individual abuses of police force would share so many similarities. These patterns and commonalities therefore strongly suggest that this behavior is normalized within the National Police.
As little as five years ago, the Colombian National Police were an armed actor in the fifty-year internal conflict in Colombia. And, as is the case with other actors in the conflict, the institution has managed an uneasy transition into peace. The Colombian police, as an organization of the Defense Ministry, are a militarized institution that both suffered and were responsible for atrocities during the conflict. It’s impossible to view today’s summary executions at the hands of Colombian police without considering their past involvement in “social cleansing” campaigns—vigilante-led serial killings that targeted vulnerable populations, such as sexual minorities, the impoverished, and the unhoused. Police brutality—and above all extrajudicial killings—harken back to the worst days of the conflict.
It’s also difficult to view the current spate of police violence without considering a tweet: specifically, an April 30 tweet by former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, in which he called for support for “the right of soldiers and the police to use their arms to defend their integrity, people, and property from criminal acts of terrorist vandalism.” Twitter promptly deleted the tweet; the statement was viewed as inflammatory in the context of the protests, due in no small part to Uribe’s checkered past, past links to death squads, and connections to the current government of Iván Duque Márquez. Uribe himself presided over a particularly brutal phase of the conflict, during which the government made significant strides towards weakening the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but at the same time was implicated in numerous massacres of civilians.
The current protests come in the midst of a wave of assassinations of social leaders, and human rights defenders across Colombia. These killings have accelerated since the 2016 Peace Accord, and have increased further still during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically targeted have been former FARC rebels, who have largely managed a transition into a peacetime political movement, although in this context some are rearming. Meanwhile, protesters themselves are coming to terms with the reality that the Duque government intends to treat protesters as accomplices or members of these active rebel groups—“urban terrorists” in the service of “drug-trafficking mafias.”
This is the environment in which these killings take place. The same institutions persist, governmental or otherwise, down to the individual politicians that were heavily involved in the conflict. While said figureheads call for extrajudicial solutions to civil protest, in the countryside political killings increase daily, as remnants of armed groups scrap over still-contested territories. Civil protest itself is seen as an extension of the old battlefields, wherein indiscriminate violence prevails on the streets, and nightfall hides the worst of the crimes.
In this manner we can see how, as a Colombian colleague once said to me: “the conflict never really ended with the peace accord. It only changed.”