Government of Colombia asks not to stigmatize Venezuelans after crime

Policemen light candles during a tribute to his partner Edwin Caro at the place where he was murdered in Bogotá on March 11, 2021. (Credit: Raúl Arboleda / AFP / Getty Images)

(CNN Spanish) -

The Colombian government called not to stigmatize Venezuelan immigrants after the arrest of a man of that nationality accused of killing a policeman in Bogotá on Wednesday.

In a statement issued this Thursday, Migración Colombia "categorically" rejects any act of violence "regardless of who carries it out."

In the letter, the agency also ensures that "the crime does not have a passport and crime must be prevented and prosecuted without regard to nationalities."

The statement of Migración Colombia comes out in the middle of the controversy created after this Wednesday agent Edwin Arnoldo Caro Gómez, 34, died after a shooting attack in the town of Chapinero when requesting documents from a group of people, as he explained. the Bogota Police.

The Venezuelan citizen Wilkerson Slyke Hernández Sánchez was identified as the alleged perpetrator.

This Thursday a court in Bogotá charged him with "aggravated homicide, attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons."

For his part, during his participation this Friday in a forum organized by the OAS, President Iván Duque rejected attitudes of stigmatization and xenophobia against migrants, considering them generators of “forms of violence”.

advertising

"If there is someone who violates the law of any country, to which he has arrived as a migrant, he must be given the maximum possible sanction in the individualization of his behavior, but a generalized stigmatization cannot be made, because that generalized stigmatization is a midwife of forms of violence, ”he said.

Audience details

According to the 11th Court of Control of Guarantees of Bogotá, the accused rejected the charges.

At the same hearing, his defense attorney asked the judge to declare the arrest illegal because he had been “abused” by the police authorities.

The Bogotá Police have not responded to the allegations of mistreatment.

General Óscar Gómez Heredia, commander of the Metropolitan Police, reported that two agents requested the search of two people who were riding a motorcycle in a "suspicious attitude."

He said that, "without saying a word," these individuals took two firearms from their backpacks and shot Agent Caro in the face, who died immediately.

During the hearing, Hernández Sánchez said that he had not killed "any police officer" and that what he did "was run as seen in the video and he did not have a weapon 32".

He also said that the shooting was between his friend and the police.

"I know I made a mistake being with that boy, but he was just going to take me home, he surprised me with what happened, that's why I ran scared," he insisted.

Hernández Sánchez, who at the hearing that was broadcast on the internet appeared with his face beaten, asked the judge to take "all the evidence of the blows, the one taken from the hip."

He also requested to be transferred to his country.

The judge accepted the request of the Attorney General's Office and legalized the capture of Hernández Sánchez.

He considered that the prosecution presented abundant probative material to support that the capture was carried out according to the legal protocols.

The security measure hearing was scheduled for this Friday at 2 in the afternoon.

The sayings of the mayor of Bogotá

After reporting this Wednesday of the capture of one of the alleged assailants of the dead police officer and the seizure of two weapons, the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, had generated controversy for her statements about Venezuelan immigrants.

"We Colombians need guarantees, Venezuelans are offered everything, what guarantees do Colombians have," the official told local media this Thursday.

López's words generated samples of rejection by users on social networks, as well as support.

In an interview with the Colombian radio station La FM, Tomás Guanipa, representative in Colombia of the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, rejected López's statements, warning that “it is very negative that they want to stigmatize an entire nationality of being responsible for criminal acts that may occur in a country or city.

Venezuelans are decent people, good people, generating an outbreak of xenophobia and confrontation is absolutely negative, ”he said.

This Friday, in statements to RCN News, the mayor of Bogotá called for stigmatization and generalization to be avoided "but neither to deny the facts or the realities."

In its statement, Migración Colombia cites figures from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC) that indicate that there are just over 97,000 detainees in the country, and of them less than 1.8% are Venezuelan nationals.

It indicates that they will continue to work on the implementation of tools, such as the Temporary Protection Statute, which allows them to “fully” identify this group, thus facilitating prosecution processes in cases that are required to provide greater security for nationals and foreigners who reside in the country.

According to the latest UN data, the South American country is home to more than 37% of the 4.6 million Venezuelans living in Latin America and the Caribbean.