The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca confirmed the responsibility of the National Police for the death of Dilan Mauricio Cruz Medina, the 18-year-old young man who died in November 2019 after being hit in the head by a munition fired by a member of the then Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD)during a day of protest in Bogotá.
The decision was adopted by the Third Section, Subsection A of the Court, with a presentation by Judge Juan Carlos Garzón Martínez, who concluded that there was a failure in the service on the part of the institution by classifying the weapon used as “less lethal”, without sufficiently informing those in uniform about its capacity to cause death.
According to the ruling, this omission prevented the agent from adequately evaluating the principles of necessity, proportionality and rationality that should govern the use of force by the authorities.
The Court also established that the evidence collected during the process did not show a scenario of violence that justified the use of a weapon with lethal potential. In that sense, he pointed out that the exercise of the constitutional and conventional right to protest cannot become a circumstance that allows the authorities to affect fundamental rights such as life or human dignity.
The Corporation highlighted that, at the time of the events, Dilan Cruz was participating in a demonstration in the legitimate exercise of his right to protest and that the fact that he had returned some tear gas fired by ESMAD did not legitimize the use of a weapon capable of causing death.
Dilan Cruz was 18 years old. He died the day he was supposed to be graduating from school. Photo:Private file
In its analysis, the Court also ruled out that there was any concurrence of fault on the part of the protester, that is, it rejected that his behavior had legally contributed to the fatal outcome.
One of the most relevant aspects of the ruling is that it classified the case as a serious violation of human rights, which led to increasing the compensation awarded to the victim’s family for moral damages, above the amounts usually awarded in this type of process.
As a comprehensive reparation measure, the ruling ordered the commander of the National Police to carry out, on behalf of the institution, a public act of recognition of responsibility and offer apologies to the relatives of Dilan Cruz, considering that his death occurred while he was legitimately exercising his constitutional and conventional right to protest.
Solidarity demonstrations. Photo:Mauricio Moreno. The Time
The death of Dilan Cruz occurred on November 23, 2019, two days after being seriously injured during the national strike demonstrations, and since then it became one of the most emblematic cases of the use of force by the then ESMAD in Colombia.
CAROL MALAVER
DEPUTY EDITOR BOGOTÁ
Write to us at carmal@eltiempo.com
