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Crowd attends Colombian gang leader's funeral amid lockdown
MANUEL RUEDA
yesterday
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A large crowd of people violated a stay-at-home order in Colombia to attend the funeral of a notorious gang leader who had been arrested for extortion in December, and died from a heart attack Sunday while being transferred to a new prison.
Videos posted on social media Tuesday showed more than 200 people parading down a street in the Medellin suburb of Bello with the coffin of gang leader Edgar Pérez while men on motorcycles honked their horns.
Some members of the funeral procession carried red-and-white balloons and a poster that bore Pérez’s name, while a couple of police officers watched the scene unfold helplessly from a sidewalk as the large crowd appeared to overwhelm them.
“This shows you how in some parts of Colombia gang leaders and drug dealers continue to hold strong relationships with the local population,” said Sergio Guzmán, a Colombian risk analyst. “Gang leaders provide jobs in some of these communities and also administer justice.”
More:
https://apnews.com/647499fa5bcd03719a07efe6f7889a55
