Justice: the cry of the mothers of the victims of police shooting in Colombia

Young people between 17 and 26 years old from poor neighborhoods, children of peasants, indigenous people and Afro-descendants, displaced by violence, street vendors, artists or students.

That is the common factor of the deaths during the 2021 protests in Colombia, an event that maintains an open wound in the country.

According to the United Nations, at least in 28 of those deaths those responsible were police officers.

But although almost 7 months have passed since the social outbreak that shook several Colombian cities, the families of the victims still await justice.

In Cali, which was the epicenter of police repression and clashes with protesters, their relatives denounce to EL PAÍS that there is no progress in the investigations.

In popular neighborhoods of this city such as Siloé, they remember 20-year-old Harold Antonio Rodríguez Mellizo, who on May 3 was about to buy food when he was shot by a firearm "in the context of an intervention by the Public Force", as documented the UN; or the case of Kevin Antony Agudelo Jiménez, an athlete who was murdered while participating in a candlelight for the victims of the strike.

Something similar to what happened to Joan Nicolás Guerrero, a 26-year-old urban artist, killed while participating in a tribute to other deceased in the Paso de Aguante, the same place where Yinson Andrés Rodríguez Angulo, a 23-year-old worker, died. And to Michael Vargas López, a 23-year-old athlete, who died on May 17 while participating in an activity at the Estancia concentration point; to Sebastián Jacanamijoy, 25, an indigenous person from the Inga People and a member of the Indigenous University Council, who died on May 28 in the Meléndez sector of this city. And to Maicol Andrés Aranda who, according to the United Nations report, participated for the only time in the protest at the May 28 marches and died that day in Siloé; Jhordany Yesid Rosero Estrella, Cristian Javier Delgadillo and Segundo Jaimes Rojas, among others.

“We only ask for justice,” the mothers of several of these young people say in unison.

So far, however, the Government has said that 231 internal investigations have been initiated for alleged disciplinary offenses committed by the police, including 16 for homicide, 108 for abuse of authority, 45 for physical assaults, 26 for personal injuries, 12 for non-compliance with orders and 24 for other behaviors.

Of those, only 38 are in force.

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