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Colombian Police violently crush Protests against Systemic Racism
Black Lives Matter Protests are met with force
Bogota- Anderson Arboleda, a 24 year old black man in the state of Cauca, was killed by police on May 19th for being out during COVID curfew. He was beaten viciously with clubs and died three days later from resulting head trauma after being transported to a hospital in the city of Cali.
Afro-Colombian communities in Colombia have long accused the National government of racism and systemic neglect. The Peace Accord of 2016 was supposed to change that. As part of the plan to improve life in conflict zones, the government promised to build infrastructure and create economic opportunities in regions that have been ignored for decades and across administrations. But in impoverished Black communities along the entire Pacific coast, many say the war never ended.
Buenaventura, a predominantly black population port city in the northwest of the country, hasn’t had a high school built in 44 years, suffers from an extreme lack of healthcare, and four in five of the mostly Afro-Colombian residents have no regular access to potable water — all despite the fact that 60 percent of Colombia’s international trade flows through the Pacific coast port city.
