Medellin Council President Assaulted in El Poblado

The councilman had a watch and several chains stolen near Lleras Park, around midnight on April 2

The president of the Council of Medellín, Lucas Cañas, was a victim of the insecurity of the Antioquia capital last weekend. Some thieves robbed the lobbyist on Calle 10 with Carrera 41, near Lleras Park, located south of the city.

The councilman told the situation to the newspaper El Colombiano and assured that the incident occurred at midnight on Saturday, April 2. “I got out of my private vehicle to buy a fast food and when I was going to get back in the car a guy approached me,” Cañas explained. The assailant asked him to give him the personal belongings, “I tried to dissuade him, but he became more nervous and more violent. That's when he snatched the chains off my neck,” he added.

After the thief got the councilman's chains, he also asked him to give him the watch he was wearing. According to Cañas, he tried to be calm, but the man was carrying a gun, so he decided to give him the aforementioned accessory. “Then he ran away and boarded a motorcycle with his other accomplice and they ended up escaping against the road (about race 41),” said the official.

Regarding the security scheme he has, the lobbyist explained that he had given the day of rest to his escorts just when the events took place. However, he pointed out that the seriousness of the matter is not because he is the president of the Council, but because “it is an issue that reflects what happens every day in the city.”

For this reason, he considered it necessary to develop greater efforts to combat organized crime in Medellín and to defend the lives of citizens. “We do have to reflect on the need to take extreme measures and consolidate a clear and concrete security strategy for citizen confidence and the free movement of people,” he said to Caracol Radio.

In the early morning of Sunday, April 3, the official filed the respective complaint with the Prosecutor's Office and is considering transferring the problem to the Council to hold a debate on political control over the actions of the administration of Daniel Quintero, mayor of Medellín, on security issues. He is also evaluating whether or not he should request a police escort, to which he is entitled by law as chairman of the Council.

Murders of members of the LGBTI+ community in Medellín

So far in 2022, there have been five deaths of the LGBTI+ population of Medellin. For this reason, the community lives in fear of the systematic murders against them and Mayor Daniel Quintero decided to increase the reward from 40 million to 80 million for those who report on the crime (s).

Faced with these events, Lucas Cañas appealed to the Secretary of Security, for the murders and abuses of the LGBTIQ+ community. “I request to hold a joint technical table, to show and know what is happening with these violent deaths,” the councilman wrote on his Twitter account. “It's very serious. They say there's an anti-gay squad in the city of Medellin. There is a lot of speculation, people are already scared and worried,” he added in a video he shared on the same social network.

For its part, the Council of Medellín proposed the creation of a technical round table to continue to highlight gaps in different issues in this sector and to create the necessary strategies to address problems and to mainstream actions with other agencies to ensure respect for the diverse population.

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