A group of women protests this Friday at a Police Immediate Attention Command (CAI), in Bogotá, Colombia.Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda / EFE
The Colombian prosecutor's office is investigating the case of a minor who committed suicide after being detained by the police during protests against the Government.
The 17-year-old girl denounced on her social networks that four riot police sexually assaulted her at the time of the arrest, which has been recorded in a video.
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It has occurred in the city of Popayán, in southeastern Colombia, one of the most violent scenes of the strike that has kept the country in suspense for 15 days.
A protester recorded the minor being dragged by four policemen.
The author of the video tells the officers: “You cannot have anything explosive in your backpack because the backpack even threw it away.
And he said that if they wanted to review it. "
Then one of the four policemen, who carry her by the hands and feet, lets go of one of the minor's legs. She tells them: "They're taking my pants off, you idiots." Four, four with a woman, he yells at them. "Do you want to give your name or something for human rights?", The protester who records with his mobile intercedes again. From then on, it is difficult for him to convey what is happening because a fifth policeman cuts him off with a shield. Someone off camera tells him that the girl has been kneed to be subdued. The next thing he registers is the minor being brought into a neighborhood police station, which here is called the immediate reaction unit.
The minor was released hours later. On Facebook, she wrote that she was not participating in the protests, but was on her way to a friend's house when she found herself in the middle of the riots. “I didn't even run because it was worse,” he said, “all I did was hide behind a wall and just because I was filming they caught me. In the middle of that they lowered my pants and they groped me to the soul ”. When the police reviewed the documentation, she said, they realized that she was the daughter of a member of the body. "I fully support the strike and the demonstrations, but yesterday I was not with the marches," he concluded.
The next day he took his own life at home.
His body is currently in the institute of legal medicine in that city, where an autopsy is going to be performed to try to clarify what happened.
A prosecutor specialized in childhood and gender has traveled this Friday from Bogotá to investigate the case.
The protests that have been multiplying throughout the country for more than two weeks have killed 42 people.
The international community has shown its concern about the disproportionate action of the police, involved in at least four homicides.
Hundreds of people demonstrated this morning in front of the Popayán police station to protest the death of the minor.
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