Petro Is Trying to Rein in Colombia’s Infamous Riot Police
Colombia’s riot police, the ESMAD, have a sordid record of abuse and extrajudicial executions of protesters. President Gustavo Petro is trying to reform the force — but he faces an uphill battle.
ESMAD riot police in Colombia. (Kurt Hollander)
The 2021 demonstrations and national strike in Colombia, called to protest unpopular tax increases and health care reforms proposed by then president Iván Duque and to demand an end to police violence, were themselves met, unsurprisingly, with police violence. Despite an aggressive campaign by official media and government outlets to portray the protesters as vandals and criminals tied to terrorist groups, videos of the rampant human rights abuses, violence, and assassinations against peaceful protesters on the part of the Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, or ESMAD), the country’s dreaded riot police, went viral on social media. The police repression backfired and helped swing the tide of popular sentiment against the right-wing government, culminating in the election of President Gustavo Petro, a left-wing ex-guerrilla.
President Petro began his administration with a plan for “Total Peace,” negotiating with the major armed groups to bring peace to a country that has been mired in a civil war for as long as anyone can remember. Although he has had success in getting many criminal organizations and guerrillas to lay down their arms, Petro has been struggling to reform another of the armed groups frequently responsible for violence and assassinations in Colombia — that is, the ESMAD.
Plan Colombia and the ESMAD
The ESMAD was originally formed in 1999 as part of the United States’ Plan Colombia, President Bill Clinton’s initiative that drastically increased funding for the Colombian military in its fight against drug lords and insurgent guerrillas. Plan Colombia threw gasoline on Colombia’s long-standing civil war, brought about a hyper-militarization of the country, and, by merging the police with the military, led to a rise in assassinations and violence against peaceful popular protests. Trained in the use of military tactics to deal with strikes, marches, and mass movements, the ESMAD has served as a “shock force” to aid the government in its fight against political and social opposition, especially among the Afro-Colombian and indigenous populations.
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