This Thursday, four years ago, on November 23, 2019, a young student, Dilan Cruz, was shot dead by a “less lethal weapon” wielded by Manuel Cubillos, a police captain. Two days later, Cruz died. This act of police violence was captured in videos and photos, including the unpublished images published by EL PAÍS. The apparent violence exploded social networks with outrage, escalating the two-day nationwide strike to a new level of mobilization and putting Iván Duque’s government at bay. Four years later, after a pandemic that shook the whole world and an unprecedented change of government with a former left-wing guerrilla in the executive branch in a country that seemed allergic to these political trends, Colombia, which is evident in the death of Dilan He finds a broken image full of contrasts.
It is a broken picture because the justice system has not defined the responsibilities for his death, which is a reflection of the enormous problems of impunity and late payments that Colombia suffers. Although the autopsy by the Institute of Forensic Medicine, just a week after his death, revealed that the impact caused “severe and irreversible damage to the brain” and the forensic report described the event as “murder,” the criminal case against Captain Manuel Cubillos is proceeding very slowly Ahead. The debate is less about the use of the ammunition known as a bean bag, a textile bag containing lead shot, and more about the actions of Cubillos.
Prosecutors determined in 2021 that the then-captain did not shoot Cruz intentionally, while a team of international experts in forensic reconstruction of the events came to the opposite conclusion just two months ago. The prosecutor in the case must decide whether to believe them and bring Cubillos to trial, which wouldn’t happen until mid-2024, as the anniversary of his death approaches its fifth anniversary — and that’s assuming it happens soon.
Dilan Cruz’s mother during a protest, November 23, 2020. Vannessa Jimenez G (Getty Images)
The mirror of the death of the young 18-year-old protester not only exposes legal weaknesses, but also reveals emotions that came to the surface as a result of his death and are still valid, perhaps less visible, in Colombian society.
Anger was already a protagonist the day Cruz was shot, and it only grew after his death. The nationwide strike called by the unions and dozens of social organizations in which the student had protested that fateful Saturday had shown widespread dissatisfaction with Iván Duque’s government that went beyond the traditional boundaries of left-wing mobilization. . The massive protests were peaceful and ended with spontaneous pot-banging even in the wealthiest neighborhoods of major cities. However, violent outbreaks left three people dead and nearly 300 people slightly injured on the first day.
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The next day, violence increased, especially in the populous south of Bogotá, prompting then-mayor Enrique Peñalosa to impose a local curfew. Then President Iván Duque announced this across the country and militarized the streets, measures not seen since 1977. The next day, Dilan marched into the streets along with hundreds of other people. His injury and then death led to violence that lasted several months and resurfaced at new demonstrations in 2020, over another murder caused by police abuse, and in 2021.
People gather in honor of Dilan Cruz, a month after his injury, in December 2019.Juan David Moreno Gallego (Getty Images)
Behind this was an anger that has not manifested itself again on the streets and that could have been de-escalated through dissatisfaction or rejection, but which appears to be manifesting itself in the low approval ratings of President Petro and the vast majority of local rulers, and in the results the October 29 elections, which were largely due to the change in the face of the outgoing leaders.
But there was also hope. After being shot in the head and lying on the sidewalk of one of Bogotá’s main streets, Dilan arrived at San Ignacio Hospital, home to one of the country’s most traditional and prestigious universities, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. There, in the heart of one of the symbols of elite private higher education to which an impoverished young man like him has little access, dozens of people held a vigil for nearly 100 hours with chants of “Dilan, live, strength Dilan.” and banners reading “Dilan, you are the voice of young people.”
A protest against ESMAD at the Cruz Monument on December 23, 2019 in Bogotá.Juancho Torres (Getty Images)
If tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets again not only in 2019 but also in 2020 or 2021, and if they did so with pottery, concerts or chants, it was because there was an illusion that protests actually bring about change. Example of an emotion, which had already characterized the 2019 local elections, full of alternative and innovative politicians who came to power. In December 2019, a survey by the National Advisory Center found that the nationwide strike brought hope to 71% of Colombians. It is the same emotion that led to the election of Gustavo Petro as president in 2022 in the hope of bringing about change. But that excitement appears to have given way to disillusionment, reflected both in the president’s low approval rating and in a return to old acquaintances in October’s election rather than the novel bets of four years earlier.
If the mirror reflects anger and hope, it also shows that there is fear between them. Fear of excessive use of force or direct abuse by police officers. Like those who killed lawyer Javier Ordóñez in 2020 after holding him on the street over an apparent scandal, giving him electric shocks even though he said they would kill him, and beating him. Also fear of a gaseous imagination of vandals, like those who pointed to viral messages from social networks during the strike nights of 2021, especially in Cali and Bogotá. Fear of a virus that will paralyze the economy and society. Fear that neither anger nor hope will lead to the changes that Dilan and the tens of thousands of demonstrators have demanded, that the fight against inequality and for real peace and more opportunities will remain just that, a fight. Four years and a pandemic later, Colombia has worse social, poverty and security indicators than when the national strike broke out in 2019.
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