Thousands of protesting motorcyclists have blocked streets in Bogotá after the Colombian capital banned men from riding as pillion passengers in an attempt to tackle rising street crime.
Bike riders swarmed through rush hour traffic on Friday in protest against the ban and clashed with police who fired teargas.
The measure was introduced by mayor Enrique Peñalosa in an effort to reduce robberies, which saw a 60% increase in 2017. It applies to bikes with a cylinder volume above 124cc in central neighbourhoods.
On Thursday, Peñalosa defended the ban on Twitter, saying: “I don’t want to put restrictions on motorcycles but the increase in crimes committed by pillion passengers has made it indispensable.”
It is not the first time that motorbikes have been targeted in Colombia’s fight against crime.
In the 1980s and early 90s, Pablo Escobar, the feared Medellín drug lord, built a network of motorcycle assassins who murdered hundreds of police officers, as well as politicians and underworld rivals.
In 2014, Medellín banned men from riding as passengers between 8am and midnight, and the city government said the measure had caused a drastic reduction in motorbike murders.
Bogotá’s ban also applies only to men, leading some to worry that vulnerable women will now be drawn into street crime.
The city’s motorcyclists claim they are unfairly stigmatised. Many work as couriers and delivery, where narrow potholed streets and labyrinthine one-way systems often cause heavy traffic.
“Just because we have a bike doesn’t mean we are thieves,” one rider told the EFE news agency. “We work on our bikes and they are our livelihood.”
Despite the disruption, many Bogotanos sympathised with the protesters, blaming the rise in street muggings on poor policing. “Maybe if the police did their jobs we wouldn’t need stupid rules like this,” said Diego, an Uber driver.
