Riots between hooded men and Esmad members caused problems in Medellín's security and mobility

Yesterday, April 19, several problems were reported together with the University of Antioquia that forced the authorities to close 67 Barranquilla street in the city of eternal spring. All this was generated by a confrontation held by a group of hooded men, from 200 to 300 people, said the Police, against members of the Esmad Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron,

Apparently, the confrontations were generated by the capuchos that were inside the University of Antioquia and who were celebrating the anniversary of the creation of the M-19 movement. Authorities indicated that the hooded men tried to steal a motorcycle from a traffic officer and a bus from the Metro system, all this was thwarted by the intervention of Esmad.

The auxiliary person from Medellín, Olga Lucia Rodríguez said: “The corresponding interventions were made to mediate and stop the confrontation that was taking place, but the demonstrators ignored this request by this Public Prosecutor's Office. In addition, approximately a group of 200 to 300 people who were inside the University of Antioquia held clashes with Esmad.”

It was also reported that in the middle of the clashes 5 people were injured, reporting injuries to the legs, hands and other limbs. Official information provided by the authorities indicated that the injured were caused by the explosion of a device that the hooded men were handling.

Auxiliary person Olga Lucia Rodríguez said: “One of these wounded people may have had a device exploded in his hand and this person was treated by APH personnel at the scene.”

Due to these events and the great impact on the mobility of the Paisa capital, the administrative body of the University of Antioquia postponed classes on Tuesday, April 19, but indicated that they return to normal today's Wednesday 20th.

This was not the only security event that forced a school to pause its academic activities this week, precisely in Barranquilla a university reported an anonymous threat of an alleged shooting.

A message published through social networks filled students and officials of the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla with fear and confusion. The message mentioned that an alleged shooting was going to take place in the morning of Monday, April 18.

“If you consider that you are going to be useful for society, do not go this Monday, on the contrary, if you are part of the rubbish of society, I invite you to participate in the victims that will be that day,” said the trill that circulated in several messaging boxes and which hours later was deleted from Twitter.

The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Barranquilla, General Luis Hernández, spoke about this situation. He denied the messages that tried to cause panic among students: “The University is functioning as normal. We are conducting an internal investigation, we became aware of these alleged threats through social networks, and we are doing a verification to rule out any adverse situation.”

Regarding this situation, the Universidad del Norte issued a statement requesting to stop reproducing the message that alerted students on social networks: “We regret that such situations arise and we hope that the facts will be clarified, so, in a very special way, we recommend refraining from reproducing messages from which the source of information is unknown and which are suggestive, alarming and misinform our community.”

The communiqué also expressed the process carried out by the institution, noting that classes are proceeding normally: “Since the situation was identified, our protocols have been activated to strengthen the measures for admission and stay on campus, we inform the authorities to receive the necessary support in these cases and to this time, classes take place on campus, as normal.”

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