Ship's Log: In Colombia, neonazi discourse fosters violence against the LGBTIQ+ community
A few months ago in Bogotá, political groups espousing Nazi and fascist ideology came from several countries to attend an international event they called the “Madrid Forum”. It was attended by parties with openly homophobic, racist, and discriminatory postures. The national media referred to the event and the discourses voiced there as simply “unpopular opinions”.
A few weeks later, a viral Twitter thread described how two men in central Bogotá attacked two gay men in the street, screaming at them for being “faggots” [maricas]. The women who witnessed the attack tried to defend them, but were attacked themselves. In one of the videos, the attackers’ faces are visible, so social media did its thing and, within a few days, they had been identified. Curiously, one of them belonged to a self-described neonazi group, which a few months before had painted its insignia on a staircase that had the LGBTQI flag painted on it, and which is known to support the groups that met at the forum in Bogotá.
