They deliver in Colombia the body of a person who disappeared 30 years ago in the armed conflict

The Search Unit for Persons Reported as Missing (UBPD) handed over this Wednesday the body of a man who disappeared in the context of the Colombian armed conflict and whom his family had been searching for for 30 years.

With the information that the family provided and thanks to the support of a civil organization, the UBPD developed a humanitarian and extrajudicial investigation that allowed the recovery of a body; and after the genetic analysis of Forensic Medicine, it was established that it corresponds to the person who was wanted.

Antonio, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, joined the ranks of an armed group at a very young age, although in the midst of the intensity of the conflict he never lost contact with his family, he even managed to be the father of two children.

One day in May 1993, they told his grandmother, his mother and his brothers that apparently Antonio, who was 40 years old at the time, had died in a combat with the Army and that his body had been taken to a municipality in the Casanare. They did not receive this information officially but through a merchant they knew.

Due to the deterioration of the cemetery where Antonio's body could be found and the security risks posed by its search and recovery, the family received support in this process from the Norman Pérez Bello Claretian Corporation.

In 2021, hoping that the 2016 Peace Agreement would make it easier to find his father, his son initially went to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and then to the Bogotá office of UBPD.

He presented the search request, provided the data he collected about his father's disappearance and the UBPD began the humanitarian and extrajudicial investigation.. In 2022, relatives and a forensic team from the UBPD traveled to a Casanare cemetery where Antonio's body would be.

delivery of the body

In a symbolic act held this Wednesday, his family received the body after a long search process in which they never gave up.. From the floor of the room where it was held, a large tree-shaped mandala sprouted that could be seen from the roots to the last leaves of the crown.

And scattered, as if they were branches and fruits, were some objects that remembered Antonio and his sister María, who fervently led the search and who died without being able to confirm that the body they had found was that of her brother.

Items of clothing such as the hats that Antonio liked and some yellow rose petals, María's favorite color, are part of the memory and hope.

After the tribute in the hall and after a heartfelt Catholic mass presided over by Jesuit Father Javier Giraldo, who has promoted the search for people reported missing in Colombia, Antonio's body was taken to a cemetery in Bogotá where this time, In a dignified manner, he was buried in an ossuary.

Thus the search for the body ends, but the search for the truth survives.