Colombia’s security forces subjected cities to indescribable terror as they attacked anti-government protesters and human rights defenders.
The latest terror campaign followed the announcement of Defense Minister Diego Molano that protests in opposition of far-right President Ivan Duque posed a “terrorist threat” to Colombia.
Molano claimed that “criminal organizations are behind the protesters’ acts of violence” and that “these are premeditated and organized actions that are financed by illegal armed groups and the ELN” guerrilla group.
Defense Minister Diego Molano
The defense minister presented no evidence to support his claim that justified the use of military force against anyone opposing the increasingly authoritarian Duque, who came to power in 2018 with the help of the mafia.
Molano is a minion of former President Alvaro Uribe, an admitted former Medellin Cartel associate who is being investigated for his alleged complicity in multiple massacres and a homicide.
Since anti-government protests that kicked off during a national strike on Wednesday last week, dozens of people have been assassinated by police, according to human rights organizations.
Colombia fighting violent repression of anti-government protests
Duque’s latest night of terror
Anti-government protesters in Cali that were accompanied by United Nations representatives came under fire on Wednesday evening, according to the UN’s local human rights chief .
UN Human rights
Cali residents uploaded terrifying videos, confirming the state terrorism campaign they were allegedly subjected to.
As his city plunged in chaos, Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina called an urgent cabinet meeting to “save Cali” after which the Mayor, whose cousin was murdered on Sunday, vowed he would “listen carefully to our communities and their clamor and right to live in PEACE.”
According to the chief of the National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, the cops responded to an attack on the special forces unit that was suspected of carrying out a terrorism campaign in the city last week.
Similar terrorism campaigns involving security forces were reported in other cities, but could not be confirmed.
“We will never forget what happened today in Colombia, murderers,” one of the many Colombians dismissing the police chief responded.