Bogota, Colombia, slum allegedly firebombed

[peppertree]

A massive fire destroyed a small slum near downtown Bogotá, Colombia, on Friday, leaving some 100 to 200 families homeless.

The slum, located just blocks west of the U.S. Embassy, housed mainly recyclers of local and Venezuelan origin.

The incidents led to accusations on both sides, with the victims pointing to projectiles fired from the city's notorious Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron (ESMAD) - while Bogotá Mayor Claudia López placed blame on residents for "torching their former homes."

"They lie shamelessly," López's Chief of Staff Luis Ernesto Gómez tweeted.

A news segment that day on Canadian-owned Citytv, reporting that residents claimed an ESMAD stun grenade had ignited the fire, was abruptly taken down within hours.

At: https://www-las2orillas-co.translate.goog/quien-comenzo-el-incendio-en-el-desalojo-en-bogota-el-esmad-o-los-recicladores/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=nui

Link to tweet

[Judi Lynn]

1. It surely sounds like some more "social cleansing" the paramilitaries (death squads) have handled

for years, annihilating beggars, street vendors, "prostitutes", "drunks", etc., etc., etc. People they don't want around. Paramilitaries ALWAYS have been associated with right-wing politicians and the Colombian military.

Many US Americans have heard of groups of off-work Brazilian policemen, etc. being brought by the storekeepers in Rio to go into the streets and mow down groups of young men they think are bothering their businesses, heard of this DECADES ago!

I have read of the paras in Colombia doing their best social cleansing years ago when they made it their business to start wiping out "drunks", "drunk women", and suspected "prostitutes".

Wiping out neighborhoods of immigrants who are trying to feed themselves by selling recycled items from a city dump sounds exactly like the kind of inhuman, hate-motivated, mass murder they started long ago. No one is really safe from them. They can also be hired to assassinate wealthy, famous people.

What a shame for these suffering poor people who literally had no where to hide. Can only hope karma will be swift for all of the killers. (Earthly justice almost never happens whenever these people are concerned.)