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Stiven Álvarez
As Stiven Álvarez, 33, walked home from a protest in downtown Medellín on the afternoon of May 1, uniformed officers on motorcycles accosted him, asking what he was doing. When he said he was doing nothing, they began beating him. Álvarez escaped, running, but the police chased him by motorcycle and finally ran him over, leaving his foot stuck under a wheel. Officers beat him again, Álvarez said, with truncheons, fists, and helmets. They kicked him and threatened to kill him, he said, then arrested him, without saying why, and took him by motorcycle to a police station. He spent almost three hours in an improvised cell, in the station’s patio, with sixteen other people. Police occasionally passed by to hit detainees and threaten them, Álvarez said. Human Rights Watch reviewed a document police gave him, which accuses him of being “part of a group of people that were committing vandalism.” Álvarez denied the accusation. After three hours, officers took him to a separate facility, under the provision of Colombian law allowing them to “transfer” people to “protect” them or others. They did not say why. After three more hours, they released him. Álvarez has not been formally charged with any crime.
