On May 1, PBI-Colombia tweeted:
“On #May 1 we accompanied @dhColombia in commemoration of the murder of Brayan Niño and Elvis Vivas [during the] #National Strike 2021. On May 1, 2005, Nicolás Neira was assassinated. 17 years later, an Esmad agent was sentenced. #Today research results are urgently needed to avoid #impunity and #repetition.”
Brayan Niño
Last year, Infobae reported:
“Brayan Niño, 24, who was a resident of the Cundinamarca municipality of Madrid, spoke with his sister, Marlin, in the morning hours of May 1, 2021, so that she could tell him which would be the concentration points of the marches that day, since she is a member of the strike committee and he wanted to be part of those demonstrations.
At night, people began to disperse to the so-called El Corzo toll and that was when everything turned into chaos.
The protesters began to confront the police officers of the El Sosiego station.
After a call for support by the police, an ESMAD tank arrived, launched some tear gas to which the protesters responded with stones and amid all the commotion the tragedy occurred. An impact rumbled in his ears and Brayan Niño fell to the ground, he was the one who received the impact in his right eye.
After the death of the young man, it was learned that Police Major Javier Arenas was in the tank.”
Elvis Vivas
Vice has also reported:
“Elvis Vivas was found stumbling and bloodied outside his local police station on the night of May 1, 2021, in Madrid, a satellite city of the Colombian capital Bogota. Passersby stopped to help him, calling out for water to wash the blood off his head.
Vivas was rushed to a hospital, where he told staff he’d been beaten by police.
He died a week later.
A 24-year-old factory worker and aspiring actor, Vivas was one of thousands of Colombians who went out to protest that day, early in a nearly three-month-long wave of massive demonstrations across the country.”
Nicolás Neira
On April 1 of this year, El Colombiano reported:
“The Superior Court of Bogotá confirmed this Friday the sentence to 17 years in prison against the former agent of the Mobile Anti-riot Squad (Esmad) Néstor Rodríguez Rúa for killing 14-year-old Nicolás Neira with a gas grenade, during the Labor Day mobilizations (May 1) 2005 in the capital of the country.
Nicolás Neira died after Rodríguez shot him in the head from six meters away, in the middle of a demonstration in Bogotá. This was due to severe head trauma.
However, the first hypothesis that was handled was that the minor, who at that time was in the ninth grade of the school, had tripped and fallen on a bollard. However, the justice managed to establish, 12 years later, that it had been a cover-up of the facts agreed and endorsed by the agents who were present that day and by his superiors.”
PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Association Network of Human Rights Defenders (dhColombia) since 2014.
dhColombia tweet: “In the demonstrations of #1deMayo of 2005 and the national strike of 2021 in commemoration of the #Day of the Worker 3 young people were murdered at the hands of ESMAD and the @Colombian Police.”
