Colombiaâs militarized police fought for decades on the frontlines of the countryâs war against leftist rebel groups and has long been accused of human rights violations; earlier this year, Temblores denounced âstructural and systematicâ abuses in the force which killed 86 people in 2020.
But relations between the police and the Colombian population further deteriorated during a year in which officers were empowered to slap people with hefty fines for not correctly wearing a mask or for drinking alcohol in public.
Anti-police demonstrations broke out in September after officers in Bogotá killed a lawyer, Javier Ordóñez, with a Taser electrical weapon after initially detaining him for drinking beer on the street. Police kiosks across the capital were torched in the following unrest while the police killed at least 10 protesters.