Citizens denounce that ESMAD attacks the Embera community in the National Park

In the last hours, the Embera community that is settled in the National Park in Bogotá demonstrated after the accident in which a minor from the indigenous community was hit by a taxi driver in the Seventh race in Bogotá on the night of Tuesday, April 5.

According to the report of the District Secretariat for Mobility, at 8 p.m. there was a blockade of about 60 people. Detours are made at 34th Street and citizens are encouraged to take alternate routes.

However, according to several citizens on Twitter, the demonstration continues at this time in race 7 and calle 36, where there is road damage in the south-north direction, and ESMAD was also deployed in the area due to the public order situation.

Given this, citizens report through videos and complaints on social networks numerous detonations and clashes between indigenous people and the police force, as well as the presence of a helicopter and the lack of light in the park.

The Zero Asymmetry Foundation rejected the presence of ESMAD and through Twitter they stated that, “The presence of ESMAD in the vicinity of the National Park is unheard of. That this does not become a new scenario of regret for what has been committed, Mayor Claudia López! There are more than 300 babies, children and pregnant women accompanying #ParoIndigena.”

The director for the Andes of The Washington Office on Latin America, Gimena Sánchez. wrote on Twitter that in March her organization visited the National Park “and it is full of indigenous children, it is unusual that esmad are gassed and stun thrown at these vulnerable displaced persons.”

For his part, Senator Feliciano Valencia also rejected the intervention of ESMAD, recalling that “the indigenous population that has been staying for 7 months in Minga Permanente in the Bogotá National Park is being attacked by Esmad. Claudia López there are children, pregnant women and older adults. We hold her responsible for the violence caused by ESMAD,” she wrote on Twitter.

Bogotá Councillor for the Patriotic Union Heidy Sánchez Barreto also reported on Twitter that Esmad has used tear gas in places where children and older adults were found.

“At this time, in the middle of the night, the Esmad intervenes in the vicinity of the National Park. They attack indigenous communities with gases, regardless of the presence of children and older adults. Mayor Claudia López, stop this barbarism,” he wrote.

Senator Martha Peralta Epieyú, for her part, asked Mayor Claudia López to “stop this excessive violence, there are many children.”

And he also called for, “Please stop saying that what is happening at this time in Bogotá National Park is confrontation. What is happening is a violent attack by ESMAD on a defenseless and vulnerable indigenous population, where dozens of children and pregnant women are found. Stop NOW,” the senator wrote on Twitter.

It is worth remembering that it has been seven months since the first group of Embera indigenous people arrived in the National Park.

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