This Week's Riot at La Nacho

A police tank uses its water cannon on protesters by the university's eastern gate.

As seems to happen with regularity at the Universidad Nacional (La Nacho) hooded protesters turned the campus into a battleground today. It's not clear who they were or what they wanted - generally, the encapuchados (hooded ones) seem to mix anarchism with communism, as if those two theories were compatible. They aim to overthrow the state, replace capitalism and all of that. Maybe it'll happen tomorrow, but it's not clear how throwing rocks at police tanks will accomplish that.

On the other hand, I also don't understand why the police appear with this overwhelming and pointless firepower, which serves only to escalate the violence. The university's autonomous legal status means that police cannot enter campus without special permission, so the police cannot win. Why not just leave the rioters alone and let them wear themselves out yelling at the walls?

The students watching from nearby bridges yelled 'pigs' and 'sons of bitches' at the police.

At last report one protester was arrested and one policeman injured. And the university's gates undoubtedly suffered lots of damage.

The hooded rioters are under the bridge, protected from the water cannon. 

Riot watching as a spectator sport. 

Observers line the nearby pedestrian bridges. 

Riot police on the avenue median strip. 

Rock throwers find a university pedestrian bridge to be a strategic position. 

The rioters, with their rocks and little 'potato bombs' appeared futile facing the police tanks.

Amidst it all, a cyclist flees campus. 

Riot police wait on a pedestrian bridge.

These students fled campus protecting themselves from tear gas. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours