A Council official denounced having released a man who had sexually harassed her on Transmilenio

On Monday, March 13, a new case of sexual harassment was learned in Bogotá’s public transport system, Transmilenio, where the victim on this occasion was Geraldine Peña, adviser to adviser Jorge Colmenares, who had to endure a man who was chasing her for several seasons and then masturbate in front of her.

“A person I don’t know started coming really close, I changed the door to try and get away from him and he kept chasing me and there came a point where he started to masturbating and touching each other in the Transmilenio station,” the victim said in the TV news city ​​news.

It all started at the Suba Avenue station with 100th Street, where the official got into the car. There was the designated stalker who started with the lewd acts, taking advantage of the fact that there were few people in the place, so she took the first bus that passed, but the man followed her for about 45 minutes, then got off at San Martín station, lobbyist Colmenares detailed in a statement.

Despite the situation, Peña told local news, he asked the driver of the car to alert the police to what had happened, but they did not help him: “He told me that he wasn’t going to do it because nothing was going to happen.”

Once at the station where he got off, he asked for help and there a young single policeman helped him, but the stalker continued his sexual acts, even in front of the woman in uniform.

“With total impudence, looking the bachelor and me in the eye, he asked me why I had dared to take him out of the Transmilenio. I told him that you were harassing me and masturbating in front of me in a station Transmilenio. He replied that he masturbated whenever and wherever he wanted,” the victim said.

The incident ended with the police arresting the harasser, but they let him go and the protocol for this type of situation was not applied.

“They only asked for his name, he gave the number of a fake ID and left, but not before saying he was free and doing whatever he wanted wherever. he wanted, since it was a free country,” the harassed woman told reporters. counsellor’s release.

What happened was criticized by the adviser Colmenares who questioned the investments that were made in Transmilenio to counter this type of events in the system and situations such as that of the adviser of his team.

“There was no protocol here. They spent millions of pesos on advertising and a strategy of 25,000 watchful eyes, but really there is only one decision. Where are the protocols for Transmilenio, the Women’s Secretariat, the police and the whole administration,” he said.

After what happened, the adviser had to communicate with his knowledge of the transport system who, according to him, responded to this pressure.

“The @secredistmujer also did not activate due process of attention in these cases. It was only when we communicated informally with @TransMilenio that the victim received a call. These things cannot continue to happen. produce! #BogotáParaLaVida (sic)”, he published on his Twitter account.

In the same social network, from the transport system, they replied to the adviser about this matter and reiterated that in no case this type of event was acceptable.

“You are absolutely right, this should not continue to happen, which is why the new security strategy has another approach in 2023. Any case of HARASSMENT is an EMERGENCY and must be dealt with in this way by all teams and units of @PoliciaBogota. We review the event in detail thanks to the valuable information of his collaborator, who for more than 20 minutes told the event in detail to the new team of the PAB (sic)”, they said .

Finally, they promised that the man who harassed the woman is one of the most wanted by the Bogotá authorities.

“As the collection of information from different sources progresses, rest assured that this subject will be among those sought by the authorities, as well as the 57 that we have already captured in 2023,” they said.