Shocking Video Shows Colombian Migration Official Kicking Traveler At Bogotá’s International Airport

Part of a shocking scene was captured in video by one traveler going through immigration checks at Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport which shows migration official Jaime Alonso Sánchez Cárdenas (above, right), a Colombian government functionary, attacking Juan Ramón Camarillo Peñaranda (above, left), a Colombian engineer.

According to witness Sandra Barba, another traveler arriving from Brazil, Bio-Mig, the relatively new biometric entry system that Colombia has installed in major airports to allow registered Colombians to bypass the immigration entry stamp process, was malfunctioning.

@MigracionCol @MinInterior @PoliciaBogota denuncio públicamente a este funcionario de Migración Colombia golpeando a un ciudadano y atentando contra mi en el @BOG_ELDORADO. Nov 24/22, 09:30am. Necesito el nombre del funcionario para poner la denuncia @AerocivilCol @FiscaliaCol pic.twitter.com/HnLMVzkpui

— Sandra Barba (@ViviBarba) November 24, 2022

When Camarillo called on an immigration official to point out that the machines were malfunctioning, causing a line to begin to back up, Barba said that the official began to insult Camarillo. After she started to record the rising tensions with her smartphone, Sánchez kicks Camarillo, and can even be seen swinging at her for recording the attack.

Colombia’s immigration authority, Migración Colombia says that it has opened an investigation into the altercation. The union representing migration officers has already come out in defense of the official, with union President Julián Garcia saying that Sánchez was only responding to multiple attacks and that the officers face a high workload every day. Garcia went on to complain that the officials are stressed due to understaffing, leading to very long immigration lines.

Friday, Migración Colombia’s Director General Fernando García Manosalva said in a statement that, “these behaviors are not acceptable and will not be allowed in Colombia Migration because they do not correspond to the spirit of respect for the rights of citizens that are the foundation of the current government, nor to its commitment to change.”

García added that “we are not going to tolerate this type of attitude” and that is why he announced the start of the investigations in accordance with current regulations, immediately after the incident occurred. Likewise, he reported that “my office contacted the attacked citizen to apologize and express our firm commitment to build a more humane treatment in all its processes.”

Photo montage from twitter video by @ViviBarba