Red Cross paramedics carry the body of an agent of the attorney general's investigative unit, who opened fire on civilians before being killed in Madrid, Colombia on May 28, 2021.
Three people have died during anti-government protests in the Colombian city of Cali, authorities said, as the country marked a full month of social unrest that has claimed dozens of lives.
The new toll adds to 46 deaths officially reported to date, two of them police officers. Human Rights Watch puts the tally at 63.
The latest deaths occurred in clashes between "those blocking and those trying to get through" a barricade, Cali mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said in a video posted to social media.
Video footage showed a man lying in a pool of blood and another nearby wielding a gun, who was then attacked by a group of people.
Ospina regretted what he described as an "insane situation of death and pain.
"We cannot allow these circumstances to keep happening in Cali. We must not fall into the temptation of violence and death," he added.
Colombians first took to the streets on April 28 against a proposed tax increase many said would leave them poorer even as the coronavirus pandemic was erasing jobs and eating into savings.
Though the reform was quickly withdrawn, it triggered a broad anti-government mobilisation by people who felt they were left to fend for themselves in the health crisis, and angry over the heavy-handed response of the security forces.
READ MORE: Deadly clashes in Colombia as anti-govt protests continue
Demonstrators gather at the Los Heroes monument during a protest in Bogota, Colombia May 28, 2021.
International outcry
The police clampdown has provoked international condemnation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Colombia's Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez in Washington on Friday.
The US diplomat "expressed his concern and condolences for the loss of life during recent protests in Colombia and reiterated the unquestionable right of citizens to protest peacefully," according to spokesman Ned Price.
Blinken also "welcomed the national dialogue President (Ivan) Duque has convened as an opportunity for the Colombian people to work together to construct a peaceful, prosperous future."
Two weeks of negotiations to end the unrest have yet to bear fruit.
In order to move forward, protest leaders insist the government must acknowledge abuses by the armed forces.
But Bogota, while conceding individual bad apples, claims leftist guerrillas and dissident FARC fighters have infiltrated the demonstrations to foment violence and vandalism.
On Monday, the White House had urged Colombia to find more than 100 people reported missing as a result of the unrest.
Some 2,000 people have been reported injured.
READ MORE: Roadblocks and protests disrupt Colombian city of Cali
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