Almost two years after the 2021 National Strike, the high-ranking members of state security forces investigated for serious human rights violations committed during the repression of protests remain in total impunity. Of the 3,169 criminal acts reported, the Prosecutor General’s Office only attributed 65 cases to the state security forces,[1] of which 11 were archived and, to date, there have been no convictions.[2] Meanwhile, 230 young people are being prosecuted for leading the protest.[3]
Among other serious human rights violations committed in the context of the protests, enforced disappearance was a systematic practice, the full scope of which is still unknown. Several human rights organizations have collected testimonies and complaints about individuals disappeared during the 2021 protests and highlight the impunity surrounding these cases. Recently, Sergio Venegas, a businessman in charge of administering cemeteries in Bogotá, accused the National Police of using crematorium ovens to disappear up to 300 individuals during the National Strike.[4] Alberto Yepes, coordinator of the human rights observatory at the Coordination Colombia Europe United States (CCEEU), indicates that the whereabouts of 87 individuals who may have been disappeared at the Bogotá cemeteries are still unknown.[5]
Continue reading Impunity on Police Violence during the 2021 National Strike