Bogota announces complaints office against police abuse of power

The mayor of Colombia’s capital of Bogota on Monday announced the creation of a complaints and claims office against the police, following reports of abuse of power by local authorities.

Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro made the announcement after it emerged that a young man had allegedly been viciously beaten while detained by the metropolitan police in the south of Bogota. 

Petro said it would be impossible to reach peace in Colombia if the arbitrary use of power and violence continued to define the relationship between the State and its citizens.

“It is not possible to build coexistence and the minimum norms which permit us to enjoy peace in our country…when what we are observing is the use of arbitrary power against [this country’s] youth,” Petro said in a radio interview with RCN.

“[I]f anything what we need is precisely that the state organizations succeed in purifying themselves from the democratic perspective…the prime responsibility in the construction of peace in the country is the public functionary,” Petro concluded.

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