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Rebecca Sprößer (34) joins peaceful protests, led mainly by teenagers, students and indigenous groups in Cali (Colombia) and soon starts getting death threaths due to her activism. It culminates in the assassination of Jhoan Bonilla (26) a spokesperson and leader of the protest movement "Primera Línea" (First Line) and the injury of Rebecca. She, despite she being the ONLY eye witness, is then deported on the same day that Jhoan dies in the hospital and denied reentry for the next 10 years. A serious investigation is still pending...

German citizen Rebecca Sprößer (34) arrives in Cali-Colombia on March 15th as a tourist, planning to stay in the country on holidays for a couple of weeks.
 
Her leisure activities get interrupted by a national protest that erupts on April 28th, as part of a series of violent national protests that have taken place in the country during this past year. The new social unrest is fueled by the pandemic, while triggered by a contentious tax reform announced by government of right-wing president Ivan Duque.
 
The government’s response to the protest is to unleash brutal military and police repression against the peaceful social movement, led mainly by teenagers, students and indigenous groups. The movement is demonized by the official discourse as a collection of acts of terrorism supported by foreign inherence with the purpose of destabilizing the country.
 
Rebecca gets moved by the struggle of the locals, and decides to join in the efforts of human rights organizations aimed at collecting food and medicine for those in need. She starts documenting police abuse and brutality while becoming a prominent voice for the protestors on international news channels and social media.
 
During her time as an activist, Rebecca gets threatened, persecuted and robbed in the streets of Cali. But it is a final meeting in a public park with one of her peers from the protest, Jhoan Sebastian Bonilla (26), what will define her fate.
 
On July 22 an unidentified gunman open fire on Rebecca and her companion, injuring him fatally. Jhoan Sebastian will die a week later due to 13 gun wounds inflicted by the killer. Rebecca miraculously comes out of the shoot-out alive, suffering only minor injuries.
 
The news of the assassination attempt spread like wildfire on social media. On July 28th Rebecca is detained by the Colombian authorities, and immediately deported to Germany, without any due legal process.
 
The signatories of this letter demand a thorough investigation, by both the Colombian and German governments, on the murder of Jhoan Bonilla as well as the attempted murder of Rebecca Sprößer together with an immediate withdrawal of the 10 year return ban imposed upon Rebecca. We also hope for this investigation to help trigger further investigations on all other cases of Colombian citizens killed - mostly young persons - during the last national protests, as well as the other protests that have taken place in the recent past.