Police fired on strikers in Colombia

The Social Strike calls on the President of the Colombian Republic, Ivan Duque, to come to Cauca and attend to the people’s demands.

For over a week, tens of thousands of indigenous communities are on a social strike in Cauca, Colombia.

The Human Rights Commission of the Social Minga [strike] for the Defense of Life, Territory, Democracy, Justice and Peace has declared that the Mobile Carabineros Squads (EMCAR) and the Mobile Anti-riot Squad (ESMAD) fired on the indigenous community in Santander de Quilichao, municipality of the department of Cauca, wounding three people.

The events occurred in the village of La Agustina in the village of Mondomo, when agents from the EMCAR and ESMAD, from seven in the morning, began attacking the demonstrators of the Social Strike, who are protesting for more than a week in different parts of Cauca.

“The three people wounded - said the Human Rights Commission of the Social Strike - were all wounded by firearms.”

Prior to the shooting it was reported that apart from the ESMAD and the EMCAR, civilians carrying long-range weapons were seen patrolling the streets.

The Social Strike calls on the President of the Colombian Republic, Ivan Duque, to come to Cauca and attend to the people’s demands. “We demand the Colombian Government and its armed agents - said the Human Right Commission - to comply with the national and international standards that regulate the fundamental right to social and peaceful protest."