Painted Bogotá | Translation

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The following English translation was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence. 

[Daniel Alarcón]: Hey, Ambulante.

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Here’s the episode.

[Daniel Alarcón]: Hello, I’m Daniel Alarcón. This is Radio Ambulante and I’m here in the studio in Bogotá with my friend and colleague David Trujillo.

[David Trujillo]: Hello, Daniel.

[Daniel A.]: So, why are we here?

[David T.]: Because a few months ago, when you arrived in Bogotá, you said something to me about graffiti.

[Daniel A.]: Yes, that Bogotá caught my attention… I mean, the amount of graffiti and the quality of the graffiti I was seeing in the streets — on every corner, on entire buildings, on vacant lots, on walls — it’s something very striking.

[David T.]: Right, something that doesn’t happen like that in other cities.

[Daniel A.]: No, not in any. I mean, there’s graffiti in every city, but in Bogotá there’s a lot of it and it’s very good.

[David T.]: I’ve lived in Bogotá for many years and I hadn’t noticed that. Maybe because I was so used to it that I thought it was normal and happened in every city. But when you pointed it out, it really caught my attention, and I started investigating the reason. I began with a graffiti tour they do in the city center.

[Jair]: Welcome, guys. Good afternoon. Uh, welcome to Bogota. Welcome to Capital Graffiti. I’m Jay. I’m going to be your guide. Cool.

[David T.]: Well, this is a tour organized by Capital Graffiti Tours. It has been running in Bogotá for about 11 years and it’s in English, because of course it’s foreigners who are most surprised by the graffiti.

[Daniel A.]: Like me.

[David T.]: Like you. Exactly. And my guide, Jay — whose full name is Jahir Dimaté — is one of the creators. We started the graffiti tour at the Museo del Oro, which is in downtown Bogotá, and then walked through the entire city center area.

[Jay]: We’re going to be in downtown Bogota, checking out the city. What the city is really about.

[David T.]: And very quickly I became aware of something Jay was saying…

[Jay]: And if you walk around Bogotá just a little bit, you’ve already seen how much graffiti we have here.

[David T.]: If you walk through the center, you’ll notice the amount of graffiti there is… and that’s just a tiny part of a huge city with nearly 8 million inhabitants.

[Daniel A.]: Well, I’m proud that what I noticed is true. I mean, if the expert Jay says so, then it must be. And of course I noticed it in the center, but not only in the center. Along Séptima — Carrera Séptima — heading downtown, for example, there are buildings, some abandoned, that have become enormous urban murals.

[David T.]: Yes. And there are also murals on public buildings. If you look closely, at the Procuraduría in the center there’s a giant mural that they also show on the graffiti tour.

And during the tour, even though I didn’t ask Jay directly, he touched on exactly that question — why Bogotá is so full of graffiti.

[Jay]: This city has to support and create street art projects every year. Yeah. And so that’s unique. It doesn’t happen elsewhere? Yes. Other cities around the world already do it, but no other cities are obligated by law to do it. So that’s the big difference here in the city.

[David T.]: What Jay is saying there is that of course there’s graffiti in other cities, and surely many street art projects, but the difference is that in Bogotá there are rules that promote it… meaning, the District funds urban artists to keep doing it, public schools teach children about this art form, there’s also a day to celebrate urban art, and sessions are organized for graffiti painting in certain areas.

And later in the graffiti tour, Jay explained that things didn’t get to this point overnight. And so he started telling us a story.

[Jay]: The person I’m going to talk about is Diego Felipe. Yeah, he’s a famous artist…

[David T.]: It starts with a young 16-year-old graffiti artist: Diego Felipe Becerra Lizarazo. It happened on August 19, 2011.

[Jay]: And this is what changes history here forever.

[David T.]: Jay says that what happened to Diego Felipe was what forever changed the history of graffiti in Bogotá. And that’s what I’m going to tell you today.

[Daniel A.]: Perfect, David. Ok, we’ll be right back.

[David T.]: Ok, Daniel. Well, to start I want you to look at this photo of this graffiti.

[Daniel A.]: Ok.

[David T.]: Can you describe what you see?

[Daniel A.]: Ok, what I see is a brick wall with a lot of graffiti. The typical Latin American wall with broken glass on top. It looks like it’s behind a park — there are trees in the back. And among the multiple images, perhaps the largest and most striking one is a big Felix the Cat: enormous eyes, smiling with his tongue slightly out and a halo above his head, as if he were an angel floating over him.

[David T.]: That Felix the Cat, which was on Carrera 65 with Calle 165, in the Suba neighborhood, in northern Bogotá, is the only graffiti by Diego Felipe Becerra that has been preserved in the city. If you see another Felix the Cat in the city, it’s generally a tribute to Diego Felipe. That graffiti was on a wall behind a concrete court in the middle of a neighborhood in the northwest of Bogotá. And if you look closely, it’s very well preserved — no one has painted over it. Around it there are tags and scrawls, and people have painted over the other graffiti, but that one remains in very good shape. That graffiti is no longer there because they’re going to tear down that wall and build a building, but the Bogotá Mayor’s Office — the District — arranged to cut out that piece of the wall where the graffiti was, to take it to the Bogotá Museum for display. You’ll soon understand why Diego Felipe’s story is so important.

[David T.]: The first thing you need to know is that he painted that graffiti around mid-2011. And at that time, the regulation of graffiti wasn’t very clear. There was nothing indicating where you could paint and where you couldn’t. There were even proposals in the City Council to explicitly ban it, and the penalty for breaking the rule was a very expensive fine. Police could even detain graffiti artists, and many reported that officers would pour paint on their clothes, chase them, and even beat them.

But going back to Diego Felipe’s story, let’s first hear from his mother, Liliana Lizarazo.

[Liliana Lizarazo]: Diego was a 16-year-old young man. He was a very happy person, a kid who was finishing high school. He initially wanted to study graphic design and then wanted to become a music producer. So his area was always leaning toward… toward art, music. He even wrote songs.

[David T.]: He was a teenager who wrote songs and painted. He painted a lot. In fact, the walls of his bedroom were covered in graffiti, because his parents had always supported him. Going back to the photo of the graffiti I showed you a moment ago, Daniel, can you read what it says below Felix the Cat?

[Daniel A.]: I mean, they’re letters, but stylized. It’s not that easy to read for someone who’s not into the graffiti world, I imagine…

[David T.]: But what letters can you make out?

[Daniel A.]: Well, let’s see: that could be an F or a T, R, I, P, I, D, O. Frípido or Trípido.

[David T.]: Trípido, exactly.

[Daniel A.]: Trípido, right.

[David T.]: Trípido was Diego Felipe’s tag. The tag is the signature, the nickname, the artistic name of graffiti artists. His mother told me he had notebooks full of his tag. “Trípido” appeared in different colors and in different forms… as if he were practicing it.

[Liliana L.]: So I think he was perfecting it to get the best Trípido. Once I asked him what it meant and he smiled and said, “Mom, you would never understand.” So I never knew what it meant.

[David T.]: I also spoke with Diego Felipe’s stepfather. His name is Gustavo Trejos.

[Gustavo Trejos]: He used to walk around with a backpack with a gallon of paint, he carried some cans, and I kept a close eye on what places in the neighborhood he was doing graffiti in so he wouldn’t dirty houses or anything like that. So let’s say he had… he was aware of that. He would come home with permissions — he’d go and ask for places where he wanted to paint, he’d go talk to people, and then he’d ask us to sign a permission slip he’d take so they’d let him paint.

[Daniel A.]: And were the parents worried about this activity of Diego’s?

[David T.]: They were worried mostly about the police, and especially Liliana was worried, because she’d see news about police abuse, and also because, a year earlier in 2010, Diego Felipe had been detained at a police station for doing graffiti. Since he was a minor, they had to go get him out, and even though Diego Felipe didn’t say anything to them at the time, they later found out that the police had beaten him.

[Daniel A.]: Ok, so you mentioned a date at the beginning of this — August 19, 2011. What happened that day?

[David T.]: Well, that day was a Friday. That afternoon his parents went with him to buy nozzles and aerosol cans for graffiti painting.

[Gustavo]: Around 5 o’clock I went to pick up Liliana, and Felipe had stayed behind at the apartment.

[Liliana L.]: So I was working until about 5:30. At that time I spoke with Diego Felipe and he told me one of the kids was with him.

[David T.]: One of the kids — meaning a friend of Diego Felipe’s the same age.

[Liliana L.]: That he was eating and that as soon as they finished eating they were going to head out.

[Gustavo]: They ate something and when we arrived they had already left. We got home at almost 7:30 and they had already gone.

[David T.]: And at around 10:30 that night, Gustavo received a call from Diego’s friend — the one he had met up with and gone out with.

[Gustavo]: I said: Hey, how are you? He said: We’re not okay. I said: What happened? He said: Felipe was hurt. What do you mean? Yes, a police officer shot him. I said: Where are you? Then he said: We’re here at 116 and Boyacá.

[David T.]: 116 and Boyacá. That was more or less close to where they lived. So they rushed out in the car, in a panic.

[Liliana L.]: We ran out of the apartment and at 116 Diego Felipe’s friend was there, telling us that Diego had been taken to the hospital, that he thought he was at the Clínica Shaio, which is the nearest hospital.

[David T.]: The friend got in the car with them and while they drove to the hospital he told them what had happened. I tried to speak with him, I tried to contact him, but ever since this happened he hasn’t wanted to talk publicly about it. So he told them that first he had gone with Diego Felipe to another friend’s place. There they tried to get a taxi to move to another part of the city and since none came, they decided to start walking. In total there were four of them: three boys and a girl.

[Daniel A.]: About 16 years old?

[David T.]: Around 16.

[Daniel A.]: Kids.

[David T.]: Right. And they started walking along a very large avenue, Avenida Boyacá.

[Liliana L.]: And while they were walking they decided to do some graffiti on a few mesh fences and some bridges. So they arrived at Boyacá and 116 at that moment and Felipe started doing a piece.

[David T.]: He started doing it on the 116 bridge, which is a vehicular bridge that crosses the entire avenue — it’s very large.

[Liliana L.]: When they were doing the graffiti, a police patrol car came and turned on its siren. They saw a police officer get out of the vehicle and they all ran, crossing Avenida Boyacá.

[David T.]: And they went into a neighborhood — the one on the other side. The girl stayed behind; they didn’t detain her. The other friend also stayed; they didn’t detain him either. And Diego and the friend who is telling them this story, the one who saw everything, tried to hide in the neighborhood.

[Liliana L.]: Diego Felipe hid behind a bush and the police officer initially stopped his little friend. He frisked him and obviously found nothing. There was a security guard there, and the guard told Diego to come out since his friend had been caught. Diego came out, showed his hands, and said: Look, I was the one painting, my friend wasn’t doing anything, he was just keeping me company. The officer frisked Diego Felipe and we don’t know why he then marched Felipe off.

[David T.]: The friend stayed back and at some point saw Diego try to run, and heard a gunshot. The friend ran over to see what had happened and found Diego on the ground, conscious.

[Liliana L.]: When he approached Diego Felipe, Diego told him he couldn’t feel his legs. The kid asked the officer what he had done. He initially thought he had shot him with rubber bullets — the kind they use — but when he realized, he had shot him with his actual firearm.

[David T.]: With his standard service weapon, with standard bullets. And imagine — a 16-year-old boy watching his friend, also 16, dying.

[Daniel A.]: Horrible.

[Liliana L.]: At that moment a private truck arrived — a man who saw what was happening — and he offered to take them to the hospital, and Diego Felipe was taken. The officer went with Diego Felipe and the kid stayed there at the scene. He called us as soon as they left.

[David T.]: When they arrived at the clinic there were many police officers coming and going. That seemed strange to them. And among all those officers, Diego’s friend recognized the one who had shot him.

[Gustavo]: He said: You’re the one who shot Diego Felipe. Then a lieutenant who was with him said: So what if it was? And right then he pushed everyone away, and they left.

[David T.]: As if challenging him. But at that moment the priority was getting into the emergency room to find out how Diego Felipe was doing.

[Liliana L.]: And so we go to the emergency room, we say we’ve come to see the young man who was just admitted, so they call the doctor. The doctor tells us that Diego had arrived with no vital signs. That he was in resuscitation for approximately 40 minutes, but that unfortunately he had passed away.

[Liliana L.]: I never imagined that a police officer could take a life. And the news hit me so hard that I wasn’t able to see him at first — I didn’t want to see what had become of him.

[David T.]: Gustavo did see him. Gustavo went to ask the doctor what had happened, and the doctor explained that there were two openings in the body from behind, in the back: one at the base of the spine and another at the left shoulder. It looked as if he had been shot twice. And there was something else that’s important: the shot had what is known as a “tattoo,” which is the mark a shot leaves when fired from very close range. It leaves a kind of… like a black mark, like a tattoo. And of course, Gustavo — very distressed, very shocked — went to talk, to demand an explanation from the police officers who were there.

[Gustavo]: When I came out there was a police major outside. So I said: Come on, why did you kill him — I mean, why did you kill him, he’s a child, and besides he has a tattoo mark, which means it was from very close. And the major said: No, well, I can’t tell you anything. Everything is under investigation right now. Let’s wait and see what happens. While I was talking with him, a lawyer arrived, introduced himself, said he was a lawyer for the Bogotá Metropolitan Police. Then he told him that I was the boy’s father, and so they withdrew and talked.

[Daniel A.]: And where was Liliana at this moment? What was happening with her?

[David T.]: Liliana stayed in the emergency room. She was very uneasy.

[Liliana L.]: I remember that I started feeling a certain… a certain insecurity, because seeing so many police officers I said something is going to happen here, they must be plotting something, because it’s strange that there are so many officers. And I told the nurse I don’t want to be separated from Diego Felipe’s body — I’m afraid something will happen. And she said: Don’t worry, it’s fine. If you want to be with your son the whole time, you can stay until forensic medicine officials come to take him.

[David T.]: Medicina Legal—Colombia’s forensic authority—is the agency responsible for these cases, and because it had been a violent death, they had to take custody of the body and perform an autopsy.

[Liliana L.]: And I stayed there until the Forensic Medicine vehicle arrived. In the end, I did see him, and I said goodbye to him and told him to go in peace.

[David T.]: And at almost 1 in the morning, after no one had explained anything about what had happened and after the police had left the hospital, Gustavo decided to return to the crime scene at 116 and Boyacá. To see if he could find anything…

[Daniel A.]: And what did he find?

[David T.]: Well, he was surprised that after almost 3 hours, there were still many officers at the scene… just like at the hospital. So Gustavo arrived at an intersection — four corners — where all the officers were gathered. And here it’s important to know that when Gustavo finished school he did military service, so he recognizes ranks by the insignia on the uniform.

[Gustavo]: So in the northeastern corner there was the lawyer I had seen earlier at the clinic, along with three colonels. In the opposite corner, the southwestern corner, there were six officers sitting. There was a lieutenant and two lawyers… apparently lawyers.

[David T.]: So Gustavo approached the lieutenant who was talking with the lawyers. They didn’t know who he was, so he managed to overhear the conversation.

[Gustavo]: So the lawyer was telling them not to hesitate, to stay calm when they gave their account. Then the lieutenant pointed out that I was there.

[David T.]: And they went quiet and moved to the other corner where the other officers were.

[Gustavo]: So we left and headed toward where the crime scene was. Normally they cordon off the entire block, but only a small piece was cordoned off — between a fence, a post, and another fence. It was like a slice, like a pizza slice. And when we arrived there was a CTI agent doing the evidence collection, taking photos, and doing the photographic survey.

[David T.]: The CTI is the technical investigation body of the Fiscalía — the Attorney General’s Office — which is responsible for collecting evidence in these types of cases. The CTI agent pointed out to Gustavo more or less where Diego Felipe had fallen. Gustavo found it strange that there was no blood, that there was nothing — in a crime scene, a possible homicide, so little time had passed. But Gustavo couldn’t do much more, so he went back to the clinic. And already at the clinic, about 40 minutes later, that same CTI officer who had been taking photos at the crime scene — the one who had shown him where Diego Felipe had died — came back and asked him something that struck Gustavo as very strange.

[Gustavo]: Do you have weapons? I said no. He said: Do the parents of Diego Felipe’s friends have weapons? And I know them and no, they don’t have weapons either. Then he said something odd had happened — that there was a weapon at the crime scene. I said: What do you mean, when we left there was nothing there? He said: Well, right now there is a weapon at the crime scene.

[David T.]: And it wasn’t the gun of the officer who had fired.

[Gustavo]: So then we started… I started to get suspicious. We started talking and I said: Something strange is going to happen. What Liliana had suspected was already unfolding.

[David T.]: And it’s going to get worse. But before we continue, a break — and we’ll be right back.

[Daniel A.]: Ok, so before the break, we left off with a weapon having appeared at the crime scene. This was already the early hours of Saturday, August 20, 2011, right? Ok, so continue with the story. What happens next?

[David T.]: The next day, during Diego Felipe’s funeral, television crews arrived with their cameras to interview Gustavo and Liliana and ask them what had happened. And that night they were very surprised to see on the news a version they had never heard: the police were saying that Diego Felipe had been robbing a bus with his friends, that he was armed, and that when the police arrived to control the situation, during the chase and exchange of gunfire, they had killed Diego.

[Daniel A.]: Poor parents.

[Liliana L.]: For me, everything collapsed. That day my left arm went numb, I couldn’t sleep. I mean, it’s such anguish because you know your child. We knew who Diego was — that he wasn’t capable of doing any of what they were accusing him of. It’s so hard to be at home, turn on the television and see Diego Felipe’s photo labeling him as a criminal. For me it was practically the end of my life.

[Daniel A.]: My God.

[David T.]: And it kept getting worse, because on Tuesday — four days after Diego Felipe was killed — a supposed witness of the robbery began appearing in the media: the bus driver.

[Journalist]: Citynoticias de las 12 obtained the testimony of the driver of the bus that was allegedly robbed by the deceased graffiti artist Diego Felipe Becerra and his friends on Avenida Boyacá with Calle 116, on the night of last Friday.

[Driver]: They got on at Bavaria — at Bavaria two got on, two rap singers, two rap singers and three boys and a girl.

[David T.]: There the driver also described how the robbery began and said one of the thieves had a weapon.

[Driver]: And passing 116, a kid pointed a gun at me, pointed it at me, told me to slow down, slow down, slow down, and the girl with a knife started robbing the passengers. Then they loaded the gun at me, because I sped up a little, I… I got nervous and I sped up and he told me to slow down or I’ll blow your head off, and he loaded it. He grabbed and loaded a black pistol.

[David T.]: The police also published a call from one of the passengers to the emergency number, 123, reporting that robbery. And according to the driver, right after they were robbed, further along the route he ran into some police officers and told them what had happened. So the patrol car started going down Boyacá, where they encountered the kids, and the whole chase began that ended with Diego Felipe’s death.

In the interview with the driver, the journalist asked whether, when the story broke, he recognized Diego Felipe as the thief who had pointed the gun at him. And the driver’s answer was clear.

[Journalist]: Did you recognize the victim — the person who died — as the assailant?

[Driver]: I saw him. Of course, I saw him in the photo, and it’s him.

[David T.]: That same Tuesday, Gustavo received a call from a radio program that played him the driver’s testimony and then asked what he thought — as if both accounts were on equal footing. They did the same to Liliana. They called her from another program, played her the driver’s recording and the police’s version.

[Liliana L.]: And I said: Look, let’s wait, let’s wait for the Fiscalía’s investigation to see who they side with — the driver or me. And that was the end of the interview with the woman. That day… that day was the worst day of my life, because I had only been three days without my son and she had already… she had completely re-victimized me. So I think that day was the worst of all the events that happened with Diego Felipe.

[Daniel A.]: So both Liliana and Gustavo say: well, let’s wait for the investigation. So what happens with the investigation?

[David T.]: The first thing was the Forensic Medicine report. They found paint on Diego Felipe’s hands — which meant he had indeed been doing graffiti. It also stated that there was only one gunshot, that it entered through the base of the spine, traveled upward, perforated the lung — which is what killed him — and exited through the left shoulder. And effectively, it bore the shot’s mark — what’s known as a “tattoo” — meaning the shot had indeed been fired from very close range. Then came the inconsistencies in the witness’s account — the bus driver’s account. On this radio program, for example, they mentioned the doubts surrounding the story he gave. The first was that he never reported the robbery to the company that employed him.

[Journalist ]: Executives of CootransNiza told Caracol Radio that they had no knowledge of this incident and that the only reference they have is from the news that has been reported.

[David T.]: Another thing mentioned there was that although he had said he had quit his job out of fear of possible retaliation from the thieves, his boss said it had been for another reason.

[Journalist]: In a conversation with Caracol Radio, he explained that Jorge Narváez resigned the previous Monday because the bus changed owners and passed to another driver.

[David T.]: And they also reported that when the passenger called the emergency line to report the robbery, he gave the bus number.

[Journalis]: Number 67, says the passenger. However, listen to the number the driver gave, which is the same one he registered in the complaint filed with the Fiscalía.

[Driver]: The number of the… the internal number is 4521.

[Journalist]: And the license plate?

[Driver.]: The plate is DEX510.

[David T.]: The number 67 that the passenger mentioned doesn’t appear anywhere. In other words, the numbers clearly didn’t match. Now, if there had supposedly been a robbery and they were chasing the thieves, why was no one arrested?

[Daniel A.]: They make no attempt to break up this gang of dangerous criminal delinquents.

[David T.]: Remember that when they ran, two kids stayed behind? Well, neither of them was detained. And remember that Diego’s friend recognized the officer at the hospital — he saw him face to face. He wasn’t detained either.

[Daniel A.]: And what about this pistol, this weapon that Diego supposedly had? What happened to the weapon?

[David T.]: The weapon story fell apart very quickly.

[Gustavo]: On Friday, the Attorney General of the Nation came out saying — at a press conference — that Diego Felipe was not carrying any weapon, that the weapon found at the crime scene did not have Felipe’s fingerprints on it, and that the atomic absorption test — for gunpowder residue on the hands of someone who has fired — also came back negative for Diego Felipe. For us, I think, that was the first relief. It was a very powerful piece of news.

[David T.]: A relief, because they went from only having their conviction of their son’s innocence to now having actual evidence. And as if that weren’t enough, recordings surfaced — the police radio communications from that night, where officers report everything happening. In those recordings, the patrolman who fired, named Wilmer Alarcón, spoke and reported what was happening. From around 10:30, 10:31, according to the recordings, he started requesting backup and an ambulance. Listen.

[Alarcón]: Central, an ambulance please.

[Police Station]: What ‘s the situation?

[David T.]: They started asking Alarcón what was happening and why he needed an ambulance, and he didn’t explain things clearly. He didn’t answer. So other officers started insistently asking for his location — where are you, where are you, what do you need — as you can hear in this recording from 10:35.

[Police]: Alarcón, give me the address, brother. Alarcón.

[David T.]: “Alarcón, give me the address, brother.” And there Alarcón appears — he answers that he’s heading to the Clínica Shaio and that he’s bringing an injured person.

[Alarcón]: …to the Clínica Shaio, please… We’re bringing the injured person, central.

[David T.]: Then the officer receiving the information asked, through a code in their communications, whether it was a traffic accident.

[Police Station]: But what — 9.42?

[David T.]: He says: But what — 9.42? 9.42 means a traffic accident in police communication codes. And what follows is very important. This is the key recording, because Alarcón explains what happened. Listen carefully.

[Alarcón]: Central, when I arrived, I saw the man running, I was chasing him, when I found him at a post, central, central… When he reached into his bag… Central, I thought… I thought he had a weapon, central, and I shot him, central.

[David T.]: He says: Central, when I found the man, I saw him running, I was chasing him, when I found him at a post, central, central. When he reached into his bag, central, I thought… I thought he had a weapon, central, and I shot him, central. Pay close attention to what he says there: I thought he had a weapon and I shot him.

[Daniel A.]: Horrible.

[David T.]: And the officer listening to what Alarcón says keeps asking questions.

[Police Station]: And did you hit him? Where did you leave him?

[David T.]: He says: Did you hit him? Where did you leave him? And Alarcón answers one final time:

[Alarcón]: He has a wound to the back, central… we’re heading to the Clínica Shaio.

[David T.]: He says: He has a wound to the back, central. We’re heading to the Clínica Shaio.

[Daniel A.]: Ok, I want to say something because it’s incredible. Those recordings are incredible, aren’t they? And you must hear it too, but I hear an anguish in Wilmer Alarcón’s voice — the anguish of someone who knows he has made a very serious mistake.

[David T.]: Yes, it seems like Alarcón knows he made an error and isn’t sure what to do. About five minutes after that recording we heard — at around 10:40 — another officer’s voice appeared talking about Alarcón’s case. And for the first time a robbery is mentioned, but they give very confused information. Only seven minutes later do they give the version of the bus robbery. In other words, the whole thing is very strange…

[Daniel A.]: But it’s almost as if they’re rehearsing narratives to explain what Wilmer has just described in his anguished voice.

[David T.]: Exactly. In the recording, Alarcón says he got confused and shot — he never mentioned the robbery. He never mentioned a bus. He never talked about chasing thieves. It was only later, when he gave his account to the authorities, that he told this story about the robbery and the bus, and he claimed in those official statements that he had reported the robbery to central dispatch through the radio communications, but that he didn’t understand why it hadn’t been recorded. And note that in those statements he also said Diego Felipe had shot at him first and he returned fire — in other words, he claimed there had been two shots. But a private security guard from a residential complex in that area also gave a statement and said he only heard one shot. And Diego Felipe’s friend also only heard one shot.

[Daniel A.]: So all of this seems to be quite a large scheme, because it’s no longer just police officer Wilmer Alarcón who is lying — there are many more people conspiring to cover up what just happened.

[David T.]: Exactly. And it’s what Gustavo and Liliana gradually came to understand: that Diego Felipe was shot by Wilmer Alarcón, but the one who ultimately covered everything up and tangled it all — well, it was an entire institution: the National Police. And that idea started to… I mean, people weren’t believing the police’s version.

[Daniel A.]: The people you say — the general public?

[David T.]: Yes, the people watching the news. And Gustavo and Liliana noticed that public support when they called for a march on Saturday  to the 116 and Boyacá bridge where the chase had begun, to demand justice and truth.

[Gustavo]: And we left the house — 20 of us — and people kept joining us. When we reached 116, there were roughly 1,500 people. And they were painting the bridge… It was a very big march. We saw the solidarity and support of many people.

[David T.]: Of course, a lot of public support toward them, but against the police — and obviously that bad image wasn’t something the institution liked. One month after Diego Felipe’s death, Gustavo and Liliana were invited to the police headquarters in Bogotá.

[Liliana L.]: And they were very cordial at first. They invited us to a room — like a cafeteria, right? Then we went into another room and it was a lunch they were inviting us to.

[David T.]: And there were some generals and colonels and also the press advisor. And Liliana remembers that one of the generals started speaking.

[Liliana L.]: And he started with a tablet — I remember he had a tablet — and he started telling us that the patrolmen received plenty of courses: weapons training, human rights training, and he kept going and going, saying they took many training programs. So I asked him: if they receive so much training, why did he shoot Diego Felipe in the back? Well, the truth is they didn’t know how to answer and changed the subject again.

[David T.]: They told them the press only showed what suited them to make the police look bad, that they recommended being very careful with the media, that they shouldn’t talk to them so much.

[Liliana L.]: I mean, it was a constant subject change, from one side to the other, until General Patiño arrived — because he had been absent for most of the meeting, and at one point he sat down at the table.

[David T.]: General Patiño was the commander of the Bogotá Police.

[Liliana L.]: And he said: I need to solve my problem. I have a patrolman on half salary. Because Alarcón had been suspended, so he was only receiving half salary — and we were like, what do you mean? Don’t talk to me about your patrolman, because I know he’s going to do jail time for the murder of Diego Felipe. Why don’t we instead talk about Diego Felipe’s parents — who sit at the table and don’t see their son, who go to the movies and don’t see their son, who can’t share even a weekend or anything with their son. Let’s talk more about that. And I want the colonels — everyone who was at the scene that day. Because they all bear responsibility.

[David T.]: And Gustavo said something — something more. He confronted General Patiño about something else: why they had tapped their phones.

[Gustavo]: I spoke with journalists almost every day. So a journalist told me: Don Gustavo, the signal on your home line is very weak — very, very weak. You can barely hear anything. That phone is being tapped. Someone who specializes in communications told me: Look, you take these numbers, this code, dial your own number and you’ll be able to tell if it’s been tapped or not. So we dialed my number and the police answered — someone from the police always answered. So the general said no, that it was just internet hoaxes, that we shouldn’t believe that. That day the meeting was very intense.

[Daniel A.]: That sounds terrifying to me. Absolute terror. Because on one side there’s the… I mean, the murder of your son, and on the other side there’s this institution that is to be feared — they’ve clearly shown that — and now they’ve invited you to what’s supposedly a cordial lunch. But the apparent goal is to intimidate them so they can close this case and move on with their lives.

[David T.]: I asked Liliana: why didn’t they let themselves be intimidated, why did they decide to confront an institution like the police, why did they keep insisting on justice?

[Liliana L.]: We believed that Diego was a magnificent human being who didn’t deserve to have his honor destroyed. We needed to restore Diego’s honor, because the way they destroyed it was — I mean, it was incredible, absurd, that they could do so much harm to a child. And we said: well, we have nothing to lose. We’re simply two people against an organization. I think it was mostly the love for Diego Felipe that drove us to fight with all our strength against them.

[David T.]: They knew that fight was going to be long, and indeed it was. During 2012 — the year after the murder — five people involved in the case were preventively detained (not yet convicted). Among them were three police officers, including patrolman Wilmer Alarcón, his lawyer, and the bus driver for false testimony. That bus driver ended up admitting he wasn’t sure the supposed robber was Diego Felipe. The case didn’t end there — as I said, it was very long — but I’ll tell you more about it later, because several things happened first that I want to tell you about.

[Daniel A.]: Ok.

[David T.]: Well, thanks to the pressure from Gustavo and Liliana and to how high-profile the murder of Diego Felipe became, in 2013 the Mayor’s Office decided to sign the first decree to promote graffiti in Bogotá. In that decree, for the first time, it stated that the District must engage with the graffiti community to foster urban art.

Another interesting aspect of the decree is that it didn’t say where graffiti could be done — permits for that would be granted by the District — but for the first time it provided a clear list of public spaces where graffiti was not allowed. So it was prohibited on street asphalt and sidewalks. Also on the mass transit system and transit stops. Also on cycling paths. Also on the premises of public entities, on monuments… Well, it’s a very long list, and it stated that District agencies could add prohibited locations or grant temporary permits for graffiti in any of them. Regarding painting on private property, it required prior written permission from the owner.

And a third aspect of the decree that I think is worth mentioning is that it clarified the corrective measures for graffiti in unauthorized locations. There could be public reprimands. Offenders would also be removed from the site and could be required to attend civic coexistence education programs. Additionally, they would be made to clean the graffiti and restore the site to its previous condition.

[Daniel A.]: Meaning, if someone is painting in a place that’s not permitted, they still can’t be detained — they’re fined or something like that.

[David T.]: Yes, and the fine is imposed when the graffiti isn’t cleaned within 72 hours. Detention only happens when there is serious damage to public heritage or if environmental laws are violated.

And although the decree did help promote graffiti in the city, it also revived the debate about whether urban art should be regulated or not, and whether doing so doesn’t strip away its element of transgression, of rebellion. Even today there are many complaints from the graffiti community around the decree, because what they say is that now the institution can define what to paint, where, by whom, and who receives the resources. It’s a whole issue.

[Daniel A.]: Of course — it’s imposing bureaucracy on a spontaneous artistic expression of a community.

[David T.]: Exactly.

[Daniel A.]: But let’s say, as a father — if the alternative is to create an environment of violence and risk around an art form practiced by many young people, it’s almost as if… I understand the graffiti artists’ complaint, but I’d rather there be some regulation, some rule, some bureaucracy, even if it perhaps takes away a bit of that artistic spark we all appreciate. Right?

[David T.]: Yes… maybe better that it exists than that it doesn’t… but that first decree was still quite repressive, because remember the list of prohibited places was long and authorities could expand it at any moment. In other words, it didn’t give graffiti artists absolute freedom. At the end of that year, 2013, something happened that outraged them. And it’s a story involving a character you’ve surely heard of.

[Carlos Raigoso]: The young man wearing white jeans, dark shoes, a black and gray hooded sweatshirt and a cap is none other than Justin Bieber.

[David T.]: Justin Bieber.

[Daniel A.]: Yes, rings a bell.

[David T.]: I’ll tell you after the break.

[Daniel A.]: Well, we’re back on Radio Ambulante. I’m Daniel Alarcón.

[David T.]: I’m David Trujillo.

[Daniel A.]: So, David. What does Justin Bieber have to do with this story?

[David T.]: Justin Bieber — the Canadian singer who became so famous from such a young age — came to Bogotá to give a concert on October 29, 2013. A little more than two years had passed since Diego Felipe’s death, and on that concert night, around midnight between the 29th and the 30th, a journalist named Carlos Raigoso was doing his regular night shift. He worked for a newscast called CityTV — a Bogotá-focused local news outlet — and he was in charge of a segment called El Noctámbulo (“The Night Owl”), which covered nighttime stories from the city. It was midnight; Carlos was making his rounds through the city with the cameraman looking for stories when he got a call from a cab driver. He says taxi drivers were his main sources.

[Carlos R.]: It was a taxi driver who called me and said: Right now the guy from the concert is here — that’s how he put it, “the guy from the concert,” “the foreigner,” he said. And I’m like, what foreigner? No, it must be the Canadian — Justin Bieber. Yes, he’s here doing graffiti.

[David T.]: Justin Bieber. Of course — an internationally famous star.  

[Daniel A.]: The foreigner…

[David T.]: The taxi driver was driving along Calle 26, underneath one of those underpasses, and spotted him doing graffiti right in the city center. Obviously Carlos headed over there.

[Daniel A.]: Sorry — what in Bogotá they call the “deprimido” — the sunken roadway.

[David T.]: Exactly.

[Daniel A.]: It’s a fantastic thing here in Bogotá. The “deprimido” is basically when a street passes underneath another avenue, right?

[David T.]: Exactly.

[David T.]: They positioned themselves above the deprimido and pointed the camera. There was no other media outlet there. I mean, it was midnight. And they started filming.

[Carlos R.]: I was at that moment looking through the camera’s viewfinder. The cameraman was the one there with, let’s say, the full zoom to capture in detail what was happening… From the moment I was looking through it, I already started imagining the story I was going to tell the next day, because those are ultimately the things I’ll be able to report. So I’m telling him: turn this way, now open the shot, focus on this, move over there — and I start building my own movie in my head.

[David T.]: And the image was perfect. I mean, it was Justin Bieber with other people doing graffiti on one of the walls of the deprimido. That area wasn’t explicitly prohibited in the decree, but since it was so confusing to know what was and wasn’t allowed — and authorities were permitted to prohibit whatever spaces they saw fit — they later said it was in fact prohibited. So there was Justin Bieber doing graffiti, and behind him was something like a row, like a protective cordon, of about four huge SUVs surrounding him. But the most surprising thing of all was that in that cordon there was a police car with its sirens on and two officers protecting him, letting him do the graffiti — in other words, not intervening. Justin Bieber realized they were filming, obviously…

[Carlos R.]: The first thing I see is him pointing at us, everyone turns to look at us, and the bodyguards start shining flashlights at us to try to block the camera. That’s very common in the United States. In fact, they use flashlights with special light filters to generate that distortion.

[David T.]: And you can see in the footage that was being recorded: he approaches one of the officers, says something — as if asking him to deal with the fact that people are filming. He shakes the officer’s hand, and the officers and some bodyguards start walking toward Carlos and the cameraman.

[Carlos R.]: I told the cameraman: hand me the memory card and let’s swap it, in case they took it, in case they damaged the camera, whatever might happen. I secured the card that already had his image recorded. I put it in my pocket and handed him another one, and he kept filming with the new one.

[David T.]: And the moment was caught on film when the bodyguard arrives, stands in front of them, and starts insisting they stop filming.

[Bodyguard]: I don’t care. No more footage.

[David T.]: And at one point, with all that insistence, the officer — a captain — seemed to get nervous and stopped the bodyguard, saying no, no, no, no, no.

[Police officer]: No, no, no…

[Carlos R.]: The officer himself understood the situation and the context, and it’s Colombia — he told the bodyguard himself: In Colombia there’s freedom of the press. You can’t stop them from filming. When they left, we kept filming. Justin Bieber didn’t care and kept painting. And we stayed there until they got in the cars and left.

[David T.]: Carlos went back to the newscast and quickly edited the piece, put it all together, and went to sleep. The story aired that morning.

[Journalist]: The Noctámbulo team from the CityTV news system found Canadian singer Justin Bieber on Calle 26, painting graffiti on one of the walls of this major road. The artist, who was accompanied by four bodyguards and a police convoy, painted about 40 meters of wall in this area of the city.

[David T.]: Obviously fans went there to take photos with the graffiti Justin Bieber had painted: a hip-hop frog, a broken purple heart, a red marijuana leaf designed like the leaf on the Canadian flag, and also his tag, his signature: Bieber. The story was very controversial.

[Journalist]: There is controversy in Bogotá over the graffiti painted by Canadian singer Justin Bieber on Calle 26 in the city center. The police accompanied him to paint in an area that, according to District authorities, is not authorized for this type of activity.

[David T.]: When the Secretary of Government of the Mayor’s Office was interviewed, he said Justin Bieber did not have permission to do graffiti. But beyond whether he had permission or not, the graffiti community felt that while they were being chased — and even killed, as happened to Diego Felipe two years earlier — this famous singer was being escorted and allowed to do graffiti without any problem. Later, the sub-commander of the Bogotá police at the time tried to explain it, saying the police always accompanied celebrities of that kind, that the incident caught them by surprise… that he had suddenly jumped out to paint and they couldn’t do anything. This is what the sub-commander said.

[Coronel Camilo Cabana]: It doesn’t mean that there’s any discriminatory treatment or otherwise. These were simply the circumstances, the situation — it’s what happened, and that’s the explanation we have.

[David T.]: But of course it was very easy to see it as a discriminatory attitude. Just two years earlier, a teenager had been killed for doing graffiti — someone likely the same age as Justin Bieber. So it was very easy for the graffiti community — which was already unhappy about everything that had happened — to react at that moment. And I spoke with one of those graffiti artists, who goes by Joems.

[Joems]: I felt injustice — total bullshit. It’s a complete misstep by the police after everything that’s happened. And the craziest part is that they weren’t letting us paint.

[David T.]: Two days later, the graffiti artists called for a peaceful demonstration. More than 50 artists gathered in that underpass — that deprimido — to do graffiti.

[Journalist]: The graffiti artists hold a marathon on the walls of Calle 26. According to them, it’s a way to protest because on some occasions they are not granted the right to free expression, while Canadian singer Justin Bieber was escorted by police to paint those very same walls.

[David T.]: Joems was there.

[Joems]: Well, a lot of people showed up and we painted all night until the next day, there under that tunnel. So it was great in that sense — the camaraderie, the contribution, the sense that all together, even if we’re not all friends or all know each other, a lot of people came to paint and obviously we were all there. Like, there’s this notion that we’re all in this, we all look out for each other.

[David T.]: And that night, Gustavo and Liliana — Diego Felipe’s parents — also went, and they were symbolically named the parents of Bogotá’s graffiti artists.

[Daniel A.]: And did they paint over what Justin Bieber had painted?

[David T.]: Yes, they painted over those roughly 40 meters of wall that he had covered with graffiti.

[Daniel A.]: And what did the police do in this case of the graffiti marathon?

[David T.]: Yes, they did go out there and asked for ID cards and even tried to take some of the graffiti artists away, but in the end nothing came of it and the graffiti marathon continued. That underpass didn’t have much graffiti before — Joems says it had some tags, nothing very elaborate, because painting there was prohibited. But during that demonstration they focused on creating more detailed, more crafted, more colorful pieces, and the entire underpass was covered in graffiti by morning.

[Journalist]: This is how the Calle 26 bridge looked at dawn — with graffiti on almost every wall of this tunnel. The reason? Bogotá’s graffiti artists organized a marathon through social media to demand respect and tolerance for their art, and to leave their mark on the city. Painting there is prohibited; however, the previous week, singer Justin Bieber did exactly that, escorted by the police.

[Joems]: Well, I think a precedent was set that… First, people were not happy with that action. It’s like a call to the authorities not to make those kinds of missteps and to think carefully about what they’re going to do. Second, it was like… because we had a lot of support from the public. I mean, the people who do this art made themselves heard. Boom! Lots of paintings, lots of people, and thanks to that action I think we also kept doing things — we’re still here.

[David T.]: After that graffiti marathon, many people started supporting them. Brands started hiring graffiti artists for advertising. If you look closely in the city center, there are businesses that hire graffiti artists to decorate their shops, their cafés, their bars, their stores — because people like it. Now there are several aerosol and paint shops. There are huge nightclubs in Bogotá absolutely covered in graffiti. Institutions also started hiring them, and I even found an article in The Guardian from December of that year, 2013, saying that the police asked some graffiti artists to paint a police station. So clearly the whole vision changed completely, right? They went from being seen as criminals to being seen as artists. And a few years later, in 2015, that initial decree was amended and only three places remained explicitly prohibited: streets (the asphalt), sidewalks, and vehicular and pedestrian bridges — except for the lower sections of those bridges. In other words, the place where Diego Felipe painted the graffiti he was killed for is no longer prohibited.

[Daniel A.]: So what I saw when I arrived here is a consequence of these two events — that tragedy and the response of this same community — almost as if it were a slap in the face to the community that had suffered so much.

[David T.]: Exactly. And I think no future mayoral administration will commit to rolling things back, or to criminalizing or banning graffiti in Bogotá. Now, many things happened afterward with Diego Felipe’s story, because it was a very long fight for justice. Over the years, more evidence of the conspiracy to tamper with the crime emerged, more people were arrested, and there were even attacks against some witnesses in the case. Gustavo and Liliana at some point reported threats received via social media and that police were following them and asking for information at their workplaces. From that point on, the State gave them a security detail, and they still have bodyguards today.

Five years after Diego Felipe’s murder, in August 2016, came the first conviction. Patrolman Wilmer Alarcón was sentenced to 37 years and six months in prison. But once again, something absurd happened.

[Journialist]: After 20 days of Wilmer Alarcón’s sentence — this officer accused of shooting Diego Felipe Becerra — he has disappeared.

[David T.]: Alarcón escaped and was a fugitive for five years, until finally in August 2021 — ten years after killing Diego Felipe — he was found and finally captured. In 2025, the Supreme Court upheld that conviction but reduced the sentence from 37 to 33 years in prison, due to his having held the lowest rank in the National Police’s chain of command.

Also in 2021, something very important happened: the Supreme Court decided to charge General Patiño in the case. Remember that General Patiño was the commander of the Bogotá Police at the time. Today he is the highest-ranking officer involved in the judicial process for Diego Felipe Becerra’s falsely accused , and Gustavo and Liliana are waiting for the trial against General Patiño. I did look for General Patiño, of course, to ask him about the case, but he didn’t respond to me.

[David T.]: In 2023, a few years later, on the recommendation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the National Police publicly asked Gustavo and Liliana for forgiveness for the extrajudicial execution of Diego Felipe. And this is what the Director of the Police said.

[William Salamanca]: I offer public apologies for the events in which members of the National Police were involved, in which young Diego’s right to life was arbitrarily taken away.

[Daniel A.]: Ok, and where does the legal process stand? How many people are in prison for the case of Trípido and the tampering with the crime scene?

[David T.]: Well, approximately 42 people participated in the crime scene manipulation against Diego Felipe — that’s the estimate — among officers, non-commissioned officers, patrolmen, bodyguards, drivers, and intelligence officials from the police and the judicial police. Of those 42 people, 14 were indicted. And at this moment, eight police officers of various ranks have been convicted, including patrolman Alarcón, and two have been acquitted. General Patiño is also there — as I mentioned, he’s currently on trial. There is also one civilian who has been convicted: the lawyer Gustavo saw at the hospital. And the two civilian false witnesses — the bus driver and his wife — who were ultimately released because the statute of limitations on their offense expired.

[Daniel A.]: It’s a massive web. There are so many people involved…

[David T.]: And before finishing this story, Daniel, I’d like for us to go together to the bridge at Avenida Boyacá and Calle 116, where it all began.

[Daniel A.]: Let’s go, ready.

[David T.]: Ok. We’re at the Boyacá bridge — Avenida Boyacá and Calle 116. It’s a large vehicular bridge that crosses the entire avenue, which is also one of the major avenues of the city. This is now a memorial space; 16 years have passed since the death of Trípido, since he was murdered. And as you can see, it’s full of graffiti — full of Trípidos and Felix the Cats. And look all the way over there, to the other side, crossing the avenue — it’s covered in graffiti. Do you see the faces of the Felix Cats? It says: Sin olvido — “Without forgetting.” All good. I know there are many recognized artists who have painted that graffiti. And after seeing this bridge — so covered in graffiti and so important and so famous and so well-known — I asked Liliana what she thinks about the fact that 16 years later this spot is so significant and her son’s memory remains so… I mean, that it remains in the city, right? And she believes that he would feel very proud of what they did, of what his parents did throughout all these years to achieve this: memory, recognition, forgiveness from the authorities, and that an entire city is full of graffiti and people can paint freely because of that, because of the work they did.

[Daniel A.]: Of course, because in a sense… I mean, even if the legal fight for justice has been long, bumpy, even discouraging — the other fight has had an enormous cultural impact, and that is indeed a victory that perhaps even Trípido’s parents couldn’t have imagined when this whole tragedy began, right?

[David T.]: That’s true, you’re right. In fact, Trípido’s father, Gustavo, read me something he wrote — something Trípido wrote, that Diego Felipe wrote and published on one of his social media accounts a few months before he died — that struck me deeply. It says: I only ask, if at this moment I were to die…

[Gustavo]: I only ask that, if in this moment I were to die, my legacy not be a secret, nor a grieving memory, and I only ask God not to be forgotten. And I think it’s something prophetic when he wrote it, but it’s also something that came to be — he wasn’t forgotten. I believe the name Diego Felipe will endure for many years in what I mentioned: in theses, in albums, in songs, in graffiti, in many things.

[David T.]: The name Diego Felipe Becerra will always endure. Even on this bridge where it all began — because since 2023, it has been called the Puente Diego Felipe Becerra Lizarazo.

[Daniel A.]: Incredible. Incredible. Incredible, David. Well, thank you.

[David T.]: Thank you for joining me on this graffiti tour of Bogotá.

[Daniel A.]: In 2016, the Bogotá Mayor’s Office declared August 31 as Urban Art Day, in memory of Diego Felipe Becerra. Since then, every year on that date, graffiti-related activities are held throughout the city.

In 2019, Gustavo and Liliana created the Fundación Diego Felipe Becerra to promote graffiti and support other graffiti artists who are victims of police abuse.

Since 2021, Gustavo has been the director of the Bogotá Human Rights Observatory.

To learn more about the graffiti tour in Bogotá, visit capitalgraffititours.com. Also, on the Mayor’s Office website bogotadistritografiti.gov.co, you can find everything you need to know about doing graffiti in compliance with the city’s regulations.

David Trujillo is a senior producer at Radio Ambulante and lives in Bogotá. This episode was edited by Camila Segura and by me. Bruno Scelza did the fact-checking. Sound design is by Andrés Azpiri with music by Ana Tuirán, Rémy Lozano, and Andrés.

The rest of the Radio Ambulante team includes Paola Alean, Adriana Bernal, Aneris Casassus, Diego Corzo, Emilia Erbetta, Camilo Jiménez Santofimio, Germán Montoya, Sara Selva Ortiz, Samantha Proaño, Natalia Ramírez, Juan Pablo Santos, Elsa Liliana Ulloa, Luis Fernando Vargas, Franklin Villavicencio, and Mariana Zúñiga.

Carolina Guerrero is the CEO.

Radio Ambulante is a podcast from Radio Ambulante Estudios, produced and mixed in the Hindenburg PRO program.

If you liked this episode and want us to keep doing independent journalism about Latin America, support us through Deambulantes, our membership program. Visit radioambulante.org/donar and help us keep telling the stories of the region.

Radio Ambulante tells the stories of Latin America. I’m Daniel Alarcón. Thanks for listening.