COLOMBIA: Domestic racism under the spotlight
Violent policing of pandemic restrictions was a problem in Colombia, where protesters demanded justice for Anderson Arboleda, an Afro-Colombian man who died after being repeatedly beaten by the police for breaking quarantine in May. Further protests mobilised in September against police brutality, in this case committed against a white man, Javier Ordóñez, who died after being violently arrested. Police brutality was in turn amply demonstrated in the response, with the police using teargas and less-lethal firearms and grenades against protesters. It was reported that at least 13 people died in the ensuing violence, even though the mayor of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, stated that the police had been told not to use firearms. Again, part of the challenge protesters faced in Colombia was winning recognition that racism is a domestic problem.
When the George Floyd case erupted in the USA, a very similar case happened in Colombia. However, while the Floyd case triggered a lot of indignation among Colombians, the case of Anderson Arboleda, also killed by the police, did not provoke much indignation. In Colombia, racism is viewed as a phenomenon that happens elsewhere, but not in our own country. If non-Afro-Colombians do not accept that there is racism in Colombia, we won’t overcome the problem.
David Murillo
