European spokesperson condemns repression in Colombia

Brussels, May 4 (Prensa Latina) European External Action Service Spokesperson Peter Stano on Tuesday condemned the repression against thousands of protesters in Colombia who oppose the tax reform promoted by President Ivan Duque's Government.

May 4, 2021
12:47

– Six dead in Colombia in new massacre

The European Union (EU) condemns those acts of violence, which target the legitimate rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, Stano said.

The spokesperson called to end the aggressive escalation and expressed the EU’s confidence in Colombian institutions to ‘investigate and jail those responsible for any abuses and violations of human rights’ in that Latin American nation.

On Monday, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, Clement Voule, stated that he was alarmed by the ‘excessive use of force against demonstrators’ and, consequently, called on the police of that country to stop that practice.

Protests began in Colombia in 2019, but on Wednesday, April 28, thousands of citizens took to the streets as part of a national strike in rejection of the Government’s proposal, withdrawn by President Duque on Sunday.

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