The spectacle of death

Let criminals fall, yes. Let the State pursue them, capture them and, when there is no other option, use lethal force against them as well. But turning death into a spectacle is not security: it is populism. And in a country that has grown so accustomed to killing, it sends a dangerous message.

I will start by acknowledging what has been done well. In Santa Marta, the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada declared an armed shutdown: they burned vehicles, fired at businesses and left the city deserted. The government responded forcefully: alias Cholo was killed, around 500 troops arrived and the group's imprisoned members were transferred to higher-security prisons. In Cali, Operation Iron mobilized more than 1,200 uniformed personnel, carried out 103 raids and resulted in 85 arrests. That is authority, and ordinary Colombians had been waiting for it.

The problem is not the results. The problem is the staging.

In Riohacha, President Abelardo de la Espriella held a press conference beside four bodies covered with white sheets. In other videos, he appears walking among body bags, microphone in hand, celebrating the operation. It was so serious that a judge ordered those posts to be hidden from official accounts pending a final ruling.

Added to this are the pistol on his belt in Santa Marta and the flood of AI-generated videos portraying him as a homegrown Terminator, armed to the teeth and heading out to hunt criminals. It may seem like a social media joke. It is not.

What does a young person from a neighborhood learn when they see the president of the Republic posing beside bodies? They learn that death is a trophy. That whoever kills wins. That another person's life is worth a video. That is exactly the logic of the hired killer, the same logic we have spent decades trying to dismantle.

A dead person, even one who was a criminal, is still a human being. Their dignity is not negotiable, nor is that of their mother, who also sees those images. A State that respects life does not need to display death to prove its strength.

And there is something even more serious. Ricardo Andrés Rodríguez Martínez, an 18-year-old, died in the operation against alias Cholo. His family says he was a farmworker who had arrived a week earlier to work with cattle. A claim circulated on social media that he was the son of a ringleader; the Ministry of Defense itself denied it. The Prosecutor General's Office and the National Institute of Legal Medicine must establish the facts, and the Ombudsman's Office is supporting the family.

Let the investigation go all the way. In Colombia, there is no room for even one more “false positive” killing: the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has already documented 6,402. No security model, however successful, can be built on the death of an innocent person.

Furthermore, the spectacle creates an illusion: that killing ringleaders is enough to end violence. Experts are already warning about this. One leader falls and another appears, because these organizations have family and social roots in the territories. If we attack only the head, we will keep pedaling on a stationary bicycle.

That is why we need to talk about Total Security. A firm hand on the streets, yes. But also an outstretched hand in prisons, with truly humane rehabilitation for those who want to change. And, above all, opportunities in neighborhoods, especially for the children and young people who are now the recruiting pool for armed groups. Because a young person with education, sport and work is one less soldier for crime.

Mr. President, keep pursuing criminals. The results speak for themselves and need no staging. And we Colombians must do our part: stop applauding death, even the death of the villain. The day a corpse stops being social media content, we will have taken the first step toward a country that truly values life.

Addendum: To Ricardo Andrés's mother, my solidarity. Her pain must not be buried in yet another video. Demanding the truth is not opposing security: it is demanding security for everyone.