A man died on Wednesday May 14 after being burnt alive in the street in a central area of Bogotá.
The homeless man, known as Marco Tulio Sevillano, was doused with petrol and set alight while he was asleep near the Javeriana University in Chapinero, according to authorities.
‘Rolo’, his street companion with whom he came from Cali as a teenager (pictured), was the first to hear his screams and tried to put out the flames with water.
The attack, which took place a week earlier, left Sevillano with horrific burns all over his body causing him to go into a coma and die a week later.
There has been speculation as to the perpetrators of the attack with some fingers pointing towards neo-Nazi groups and others believing it was committed by paramilitary groups taking part in social cleansing.
Ombudsman Jorge Armando Otálora, commented that the attack was ‘savage’ and requested that Police and the Prosecutors Office give priority to investigating the murder.
Sevillano was well-known by professors and students of the Javeriana University as he resided in the underpass located in front of the university.
“It is necessary to identify those responsible and subject them to the full force of the law,” Otálora stated in a press release, in which he also highlighted that in Colombia human rights should apply to everyone regardless of their social, economic and cultural status.
General Edgar Sanchez, commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, announced a reward of $20 million COP for information.
