Band of robbers have whipped the Sitp night bus system in the town of Rafael Uribe Uribe in Bogotá

In December 2020, a passenger shot a thief who tried to steal him at a SITP in Ciudad Bolívar

Moments of panic and adrenaline are constantly experienced by passengers on the Sitp routes that have zonal coverage for transport in the town of Rafael Uribe Uribe in Bogotá.

Is about a gang of robbers that is constantly robbing drivers and users of the capital’s public transport system.

Taking advantage of the solitude of the streets and the few people who are using Bogotá’s public transport system, since they are studying or working from home, a criminal gang robbed all the passengers of a zonal route south of the city, on the night of Monday, January 18.

Everything happened in the streets surrounding the La Resurrección neighborhood, in the Rafael Uribe Uribe town. Faced with the resistance of two citizens to surrender their belongings, the criminals did not hesitate to draw knives to attack and injure the passengers.

According to information provided by the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, the injuries received by passengers are not serious.

Community denounces the modus operandi of the band during the pandemic

The La Resurrección neighborhood community indicated that this type of theft is taking place in the area almost daily. According to what was reported by an informal vendor who remains in the area, it is a band of Venezuelan migrants who would be entering the buses armed at various stops in the system. This is how the woman related it to the Blu Radio station:

It is a band of Venezuelans who walk with sticks and armed machetes, it is a large band, they climb from stop to stop, the route came from July 20. This is happening daily, on Friday another happened, they already have a clear escape route, they know the area. That looked like a massacre, it was very sad because in the same images you can see the blood on the floor

The last statement of the woman perfectly describes the worrying situation of insecurity and the serious state in which the urban bus was left, stained with blood inside from the wounds suffered by the users at the hands of the assailants. This was recorded in a video shared and disseminated by drivers of the transport system:

In the same way, Germán Díaz, a local bus driver, told the Bogota station that they have already robbed him three times:

They climb up with a knife and sticks, this here became a mooring. They have already robbed me three times, Friday was the last and they threatened me, they take out very large knives

And although many people say that most of the time criminals get away with it and flee from the scene without reaction time for the Police, there are victims who denounced that the cases do not only occur inside the buses, but who wait for the victims to get off to assault them among several. Juliana Roa denounced this on Blu Radio:

They stole my papers, my cell phone and my bag, a lot is happening when it is not inside the bus, they wait for you on the descent and they attack you there

The victims of the last case reported that the massive robbery occurred at approximately 7:30 pm on January 18 while they boarded a bus whose destination was the Portal del 20 de Julio. The community also denounced that robberies are constant and that those responsible would be the same criminals who would be committing crimes in neighborhoods located south of the city. The situation is also occurring on feeder routes.