This Friday, December 12, the Bogotá Mayor’s Office released more details about the 11 prosecuted for their responsibility in acts of vandalism and terrorism during protests in the capital.
It was thanks to information provided by citizens, students from the public universities where they often acted, neighbors and the intelligence actions of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Metropolitan Police that the capture of these criminals was achieved.
According to the information collected, this gang, identified as ‘PPP’ (Clandestine Brigade for the people and by the people), would be receiving resources from the city of Medellín to finance the purchase of explosives and materials.
The investigation also revealed that this group would be linked to the ELN guerrilla. This gang would also be working together with this same type of structures that generate terror in the public universities of the departments of Antioquia and Valle del Cauca, which is why this information was sent to the security secretaries of those territories.
Modus operandi: fake IDs and changes of clothes
The members of ‘PPP’ entered the different public universities of Bogotá with false student cards. Once inside the university campus, they located strategic points to change clothes: overalls, masks and hoods.
Subsequently, they prepared dangerous elements or devices (such as potato bombs and Molotov cocktails), which they used to launch against the public force, TransMilenio stations and SITP buses.
Through WhatsApp groups, Instagram, Facebook, among other social networks, they summoned the members and coordinated the violent actions.
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The mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, specified that the events in which this group participated were not protests.
“They are not a demonstration, they are the crimes for which these people were charged, that is not a protest. In Bogotá peaceful protest is guaranteed, that is not a protest, it is not and we are not going to allow it”said the president.
Galán added that progress continues in the investigations of these events to capture all those responsible.
The 11 captured were placed at the disposal of the Attorney General’s Office to be presented before a guarantee control judge, where their legal situation will be defined while the investigations progress for the crimes of terrorism, manufacturing and carrying of explosive devices, and damage to other people’s property.
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