UN, EU CALL FOR CALM AT PROTESTS

BOGOTA The United Nations and European Union on Tuesday called for calm and warned of the use of excessive force at protests against the administration of Colombian President Ivan Duque, as protester deaths mounted and rallies continued overnight.

The protests, originally called in opposition to a now-cancelled tax reform, have become a broad cry for action against poverty and what demonstrators and some advocacy groups say is police use of excessive force.

The national police has said it will investigate more than two dozen allegations of brutality, while the defence minister has alleged illegal armed groups are infiltrating the protests to cause violence.

The city of Cali has become the protests' epicentre and is the site of 11 of 19 deaths confirmed by the country's human rights ombudsman.

“No more blood in Cali,” Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said on Twitter Tuesday.

The tax reform, which would have expanded sales and income tax, has been withdrawn and the finance minister has resigned.