> Gareth Sella was blinded in his left eye when a police officer in Bogotá shot him with a rubber bullet at the protests. He argued that hiding the identity of protesters makes sense to protect them from ending up in jail on inflated charges. “As the UN has documented, the state has continued pursuing protesters and more than 100 are in jail, many with disproportionate sentences, such as terrorism, to make an example of them. Hiding our identities seems sensible to me given that two years on we continue living in the fear that we could be jailed at any moment or even that they come after us on the streets,” Sella said.
People in first world countries often underestimate just how dangerous political protests are in other parts of the world. It's not just about getting arrested or injured at the event itself, but about being identified and targeted many weeks afterwards. The protesters are certainly willing to risk a lot, but they are taking every step possible to not martyr themselves.