Proposed Rules for Colombian Police Criticized as Repressive

Colombian lawmaker Alirio Uribe Muñoz criticized a new set of proposed rules guiding the conduct of members of the Colombian National Police for opening the door to repression. 

In an interview Thursday with Contagio Radio, Uribe Muñoz took issue with the code for requiring demonstrations to receive approval from the police with at least 48-hours notice. This type of requirement has led to a crackdown on social protests in other jurisdictions, with police and government officials denying permission in order to break up demonstrations.

The proposed rules would also allow police to conduct raids without a court-order and allow them to control public space, both of which concern Uribe Muñoz.

According to Uribe Muñoz, 51 percent of employment in the capital of Bogota is informal, and the new code could be used to forcibly eject people engaged in informal labor from public spaces. Bogota is currently run by Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who has shown a proclivity to using police to repress.

The lawmaker welcomes to effort to draft a new code, and concedes that it contains positive elements. Previous codes were drafted and implemented as part of a presidential decree during a “state of exception.” This new code of conduct would be the first drafted and approved by a democratic institution, in this case, the country's Congress.

Uribe Muñoz said the new code must be compatible with a new “post-conflict” Colombia, which is on the cusp of securing a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after a five-decade-long armed conflict. 

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As a result of the armed conflict, Colombia's National Police was roped into counter insurgency efforts, and unlike most jurisdictions in the region, answers to the Ministry of Defense and not the Ministry of the Interior.

The proposed code of conduct has already been approved by the Senate and will now be discussed in the lower chamber. Uribe Muñoz, who represents the capital in the House of Representatives, said he would work to eliminate the highly controversial anti-riot unit of the National Police.