00:00The death of Donovan Balanta, 34, reopens a wound that Bogotá and the country cannot heal.
00:05have been able to heal. The one from a police procedure that ends in tragedy and the persistent
00:09voids of impunity and prejudice that surround the public force.
00:12The most recent case occurred on the night of Sunday, September 20. Donovan Balanta
00:17Paz was returning from accompanying his girlfriend when he was approached by uniformed police officers.
00:21According to testimonies gathered by El Espectador and preliminary investigations,
00:26During the capture procedure, the young man received multiple blows and electric shocks.
00:31with Taser-type weapons. Only when the man lost consciousness in the cell did they take him away
00:35to a medical center. Authorities are investigating individual responsibilities, while
00:40The family demands clear answers about the use of force in an everyday procedure.
00:45The circumstances surrounding Donovan's death are not only alarming because of the level
00:50not only do they highlight the violence reported by her family, but they also bring back to the table the role
00:54of prejudice and racial or socioeconomic profiling in police operations.
00:59As pointed out in the editorial of El Espectador on December 15, 2023, and which seems
01:04To remain relevant, citizens seem condemned to live entrenched in prejudices.
01:09where the police force operates, sometimes under unfounded suspicions that escalate towards
01:14lethal physical abuse. The case also opened a discussion about a possible component
01:19Racial. A Black leader and victims' advocate who is supporting the family called for an investigation
01:24whether racism influenced the treatment Donovan received and the level of force used
01:29during the procedure. The leader assures that the case would not be isolated.
01:34Organizations in Soacha and Ciudad Bolívar have received other reports from Afro-Colombian youth
01:38for alleged beatings, discriminatory searches and insults during police procedures.
01:44This pattern is neither new nor isolated. In September 2020, the murder of Javier
01:48Ordóñez, at the hands of patrol officers who applied repeated electric shocks to him, unleashed
01:52The protests of September 9th, a day of horror in which 14 people lost their lives, in
01:58Most of them young people injured by firearms. That same year, the CAI tragedy
02:02The San Mateo incident in Soacha left eight young people burned to death while in police custody.
02:07a case that, after four years, continues to cry out for full justice and reparation for the victims.
02:13Despite the exemplary 40-year sentence imposed on former patrolman Juan Camilo Lloreda for the case
02:17Ordóñez, organizations such as Temblores NGO have pointed out the gaps and institutional silence
02:23It persists. And the cases continued. In 2022, with the death of Coby Bray Duarte in Teusaquillo, and
02:29In 2025, Angie Alejandra Rodríguez, 27, was killed in Suba. Most of these cases remain unpunished.
02:36The figures reveal another problem. According to Temblores, between 2020 and 2022, the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences reported 352 deaths in earthquakes.
02:43Those cases allegedly involved police officers. The Prosecutor's Office opened 45 investigations into homicidal violence.
02:49allegedly committed by uniformed officers, and as of July 2023, none had reached a sentence
02:54Executed. Now, the death of Donovan Balanta brings the discussion back to the table. How
03:00Force is being used in police procedures, and what happens afterward when one
03:04Which of these cases ends with a person dead? Regarding the Donovan Balanta case, the Prosecutor's Office and the
03:09The curatorial team is making progress in its investigations to determine the degree of responsibility of the
03:13uniformed officers involved. The question that remains is whether this case will be added to the extensive
03:19List of impunity. Do you believe that mechanisms for controlling the police have improved or that they persist?
03:24The same loopholes of impunity? Leave your opinion in the comments, subscribe to the YouTube channel
03:28from El Espectador and read the full analysis on our website.
