Colombia's Senator Arias Persecuted for Helping Protesters

Demonstrators carry an injured person shot by the police, in Cali, Colombia, May 2021. | Photo: EFE

Published 2 June 2021

Wilson Arias is under investigation for chasing a police van in which a group of protesters was illegally detained.

Colombia's leftist Senator Wilson Arias on Wednesday denounced that the Attorney General's Office opened an investigation against him for protecting young protesters in Cali.

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"I am being politically persecuted for chasing a police van in which a group of protesters was illegally detained. What would have become of them if I had not reacted in time? The cops were forced to let them go," Arias tweeted.

Regarding this incident, political scientist Alvaro Pardo recalled that "when a State cannot physically exterminate opposition leaders, it recurs to political persecution to disqualify them and annul their rights. This strategy is already known. It has been applied since the oldest dictatorships of humanity." 

Pardo also rejected the Attorney General's Office decision "to investigate a political figure who prevented an illegal detention from happening while the police continue to act without impunity against demonstrators."

Arias' announcement came after Colombians denounced an escalation of police brutality in the Putumayo Department. According to the Association of Inga Indigenous Councils, police shot protesters with shrapnel to force them to unblock roads.

Videos on social networks show dozens of people fleeing from the gunfire, along with a man with a bloodied back with traces of embedded shrapnel.

"The people will stop suffering when President Ivan Duque recognizes he is the main promoter of this crisis, aggravated by systematic police brutality, the pandemic, and social insecurity," Arias assured.