A wave of violence that hit Colombia’s capital Bogota hard in the last 72 hours, left 17 people killed. The circumstances of the deaths are unclear.
Some victims’ families say the murders are social cleansing, but police doesn’t discard the victims belonged to illegal gangs.
Ramiro Realpe Soaches, 27-years-old, and Victor Urrea, 15-years-old, were killed in the barrio San Cristobal.
“My boyfriend was with Victor Urrea when some guys came and killed them. This is a cleansing, everyone in the neighborhood believes it,” Ramiros’ girlfriend, who preferred to stay anonymous, told local television network City TV.
Ramiros’ mother Maria Bustos Dali acknowledged that her son consumed drugs but said that he never carried guns. “The police said it was a shootout between them but that is a lie, because a policeman threatened me. He told me that if he sees him [Ramiros] in a bad place he would kill him,”, Bustos Dali said.
Martha Adriana Alvarado lost two sons in the wave of violence, Edimer Dayan, 17-years-old, and Miller Duban, 22-years-old.
“My younger son was shot, then they stabbed his face until you couldn’t recognize him anymore. They took the 22-year-old to a tower and shot him too,” the mother said without being able to tell who the responsible were.
In total, six people were killed in San Cristobal, four in Ciudad Bolivar, three in Kennedy, two in Rafael Uribe Uribe, one in Santa Fe and another one in Tunjuelito.