translated from Spanish: Protests in Colombia: UN denounced “excessive use of force” against protesters

UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed on Tuesday, through his spokesman, the importance of the Colombian government allowing peaceful protests, after the organization denounced excessive use of force by law envoys.” What is paramount is that the Government allows people to express themselves peacefully and demonstrate peacefully. Those are basic rights and that’s our position,” Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said, asked about it at his daily press conference. Dujarric said the UN Secretariat-General is closely following the situation in Colombia, where a wave of protests has left at least 19 dead and 800 injured. On Tuesday, the UN Office for Human Rights reported from Geneva that Colombian law envoys have exercised “excessive use of force” against protesters. Responsible for the mission of that United Nations agency in Cali, one of the cities where there have been more violent incidents, “they have witnessed excessive use of force by the police”, the office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado, highlighted at a press conference. , in the context of a tense and volatile situation in which some protest participants have also been violent,” added office spokeswoman who heads high commissioner Michelle Bachelet.La office was “deeply alarmed” by events in the city of Cali last night, “in which police opened fire on protesters protesting tax reforms , causing several dead and wounded.” The office headed by Bachelet indicated that since the incidents began on April 28, it has received news of at least 14 deaths, not counting those of last night in Cali, while the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office has raised the number to 19 deaths. The protests, arising amid a pandemic with serious economic consequences for a large part of Colombian families, detonated a proposal for tax reform that was already withdrawn by the Government and led to the resignation of the Minister of Finance, Alberto Carrasquilla.La tax reform, envisaged the extension of the tax base and the collection of VAT of 19% to public services , which particularly harmed the middle and lower classes of the country.

Original source in Spanish