‘Don’t come near me’: the reasons for the brutal attack in Usaquén that changed María’s life forever at the hands of a man with harassing behavior

For a long time, entering María Quevedo’s bakery was almost a ritual for many residents of Usaquén. The aroma of freshly baked desserts caught attention, while a person offered small tastings to those passing by the counter. It was one of those traditional businesses where customers didn’t just go for a coffee or a cake, but because they knew the people who served them and felt they were part of the place. No one imagined that behind that display case where smiles were shared so many times, an assault would occur that would shock the neighborhood and the country.

At ten o’clock at night, when the establishment was about to close, María thought another workday was ending. She had only been working alongside Jesús Acosta Lizardo, a 45-year-old Venezuelan citizen, who that night would brutally attack her. 

She knew him little, but from the first days she had started noticing behaviors that made her feel uncomfortable: comments about her appearance, unnecessary closeness, and physical contact that he justified by saying the workspace was small. She tried to ignore it for several days, convinced these were isolated incidents, until she felt she had to set a limit before it was too late.

“He told me I was very pretty. There were constant brushes and he always found an excuse to get close. I tried to handle the situation, but there came a time when I understood I had to clearly tell him to respect my space,” she recalls.

That night she decided to do it. Calmly but firmly, she asked him to stop touching her and invading her personal space. He responded by denying everything. To anyone else, it might have seemed like just another conversation between two coworkers. For María, however, that moment marked the beginning of a nightmare she still tries to understand.

“I told him: ‘Please don’t touch me. Please don’t come near me. That’s not right.’ He told me he had never touched me nor intended to. But I feel that at that moment something changed. I think that’s when a switch flipped in his mind.” 

Since the video of the assault started circulating on social media, one version was repeatedly told: that it all originated from a dispute over payment. María rejects that interpretation. She assures that the worker’s salary was up to date and he had even received advances when he needed them. 

She explains that the money dispute happened after he announced he would not return to work and demanded immediate payment, around ten-thirty at night, at a time when she couldn’t even access her bank accounts because five days earlier her phone had been stolen and all her financial apps remained locked.

“That argument was a consequence of everything before. The real trigger was when I asked him not to touch me and not to come near me. I can’t find another explanation for what happened afterward.” 

What came next was an explosion of violence that she still finds hard to describe. The blows started inside the establishment and, according to her account, the man took her to a place where no one could see her.

While trying to protect herself, she realized her screams might not be enough for someone to come to her aid. So she resorted to a desperate act: she began breaking the dishes of her own bakery. It wasn’t an act of rage over material damage. It was a survival strategy. “I needed someone to hear me. Every plate I broke was to make noise, so someone would realize something terrible was happening inside. I felt it was the only way to ask for help.”

The images of the beating spread across the country within hours. María never wanted that intimate and painful episode to become public. However, today she believes that exposure ended up being decisive for the direction of the investigation. 

While she was hospitalized recovering from her injuries, the attacker had been released because the crimes initially attributed to him did not include a preventive detention measure.

“The only option we had was to make visible what had happened. Thanks to everyone seeing that video, the Prosecutor’s Office began to review the case from a different perspective.”

After the national dissemination of the case, the Attorney General’s Office reported that it activated its gender group to analyze the assault from that perspective and ordered new judicial police procedures. Among them, it arranged to re-verify the preliminary report from Legal Medicine, contrasting it with the hospital’s clinical history where the victim was treated, to establish if the injuries were more severe than initially determined and if the crime currently under investigation should be modified. 

Additionally, it confirmed that María was granted protective measures and that interviews with neighbors in the area continue to reconstruct the full context of what happened.

The entity explained that the detainee was released because the crimes initially investigated — personal injuries and damage to someone else’s property — do not allow for a preventive detention measure, so he will remain linked to the process through a commitment to appear.

The decision provoked a strong reaction from the Mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, who called it “inexplicable” that the attacker had been released despite the seriousness of the events. The mayor requested that the investigation proceed under the hypothesis of attempted femicide, that a preventive detention measure be imposed, and that previous records the alleged attacker might have be taken into account. “Violent acts like this cannot have a place in our society. The attacker must be in jail and all decisions must prioritize the protection of the victim,” he stated.

The District Secretary for Women, Laura Tami, also expressed concern about the legal situation of the alleged perpetrator and confirmed that, from the moment they learned of the case, the Single Care Route was activated to comprehensively support María. The entity announced ongoing monitoring of the process and warned that no woman should live in fear after reporting an assault, much less when she has stated having received subsequent threats.

But while the authorities advance in the investigation, María faces another battle: regaining peace of mind. The violence not only left physical injuries. It also broke the bond she had with the place she built over years and where she personally served those who came looking for a coffee or a dessert. Today, every time she thinks about returning, she feels that fear weighs more than any desire to resume normality.

“I’m not going back to run my business. I have thought many times about what will happen the day I have to enter that place again. After the threats, the beating, and being taken to a place where no one could see me, I feel this person still represents a risk to me.”

However, amid the pain, gestures have also appeared that have allowed her to feel she is not alone. Merchants, neighbors, and regular customers of Usaquén began organizing different initiatives to support her. The Usaquén Historic Center Association called the event “We Are All María,” a solidarity night to be held this Wednesday at the Santa Lucía Gastrobar restaurant. With live music and a special gastronomic offer, the event aims to raise funds to help her while she remains incapacitated and send a clear message: the neighborhood that for years saw her welcome customers with a smile now wants to support her in one of the most difficult moments of her life.

Because, although she tries to rebuild her life away from the counter where she worked for so many years, there is a phrase that keeps coming back again and again to her memory. It wasn’t an insult or a threat. It was just seven words with which a woman tried to defend her space, her dignity, and her right to feel safe at her workplace. “Please, don’t touch me. Please, don’t come near me.”

CAROL MALA VER

SUBEDITOR BOGOTÁ

Write to us at carmal@eltiempo.com