Bogotá strengthens security in nine locations for presidential elections

At the meeting of the District Commission for the Coordination and Monitoring of Electoral Processes, an increase in the force force in nine locations in Bogotá was agreed and there will be minute-by-minute monitoring in coordination with the various local authorities.

Security will be strengthened in Bogotá with a view to the first round of the presidential elections in Colombia. The measure will apply, mainly, in the towns of Usme, Ciudad Bolivar, Kennedy, San Cristobal, Bosa, Rafael Uribe Uribe, Usaquén, Suba and Sumapaz, where there are early warnings for possible threats to public order.

There will be a special follow-up to the town of Ciudad Bolivar, where 164 additional police officers will arrive, taking into account the recent attacks that have occurred in the area.

“Security measures will be stepped up in 9 locations and particularly the issue of Ciudad Bolivar and Sumapaz. In Sumapaz it will be a mixed police and army scheme and in Ciudad Bolivar we will have a larger force, with more than 150 additional police officers, to ensure that the electoral contest does not present any kind of problems,” said Alfy Rojas, director of Citizen Participation, of the Bogotá Government Secretariat.

Extraordinary measures were adopted such as the restriction of barbecue on motorcycles on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, between 7:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. throughout the city and no meetings can be held in parks, squares and public squares between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. since last Monday.

At the entrances and exits of Bogotá there will be 20 mixed army and police teams exercising preventive controls.

On election day, there will be real-time monitoring in the 20 locations with the public order and electoral authorities through the District Unified Command post, where Mayor Claudia López and the 20 local PMU will be present.

There will be 901 polling stations in Bogotá where they are authorized to vote 5,967,518 citizens. For this election day, when the president and vice-president of Colombia will be elected for the period 202-2026, there will be around 108,000 voting juries.

During the meeting, the suggestions and complaints of the different political actors were heard and they were transferred to the relevant entities in accordance with their competences.

In addition, representatives of civil society, public servants of the district, the Registry Office, the National Electoral Council, political parties and movements, committed themselves in the presence of the supervisory bodies to promote and ensure that physical or psychological violence is eliminated in the remainder of the campaign.

In this way, the Electoral Security and Guarantees Plan was ready for political parties, candidates and citizens in order to guarantee a peaceful and transparent electoral day.

On March 26, an attack occurred in the CAI of Arborizadora Alta, in the town of Ciudad Bolívar. The dramatic act that authorities say was executed by FARC dissidents left 35 people injured and a 12-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl died. The explosion also left at least 20 houses affected, whose windows were broken by the force of the explosive wave, as well as six injured pets.

The event marked a precedent and an important warning in the capital of Colombia, as it reveals that even urban areas are not exempt from the violence of the criminal groups that have been consolidated in the country.

The investigations have indicated that the terrorist act was financed and planned in Venezuela, and it is attributed to Javier Alonso Velosa García, alias John Mechas, the criminal leader of one of the dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla, who carried out the attack against President Iván Duque and against the airport of Cucuta (Norte) of Santander).

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