They recover 18 bodies of missing people in the Arauca cemetery in intervention of the Person Search Unit

The Search Unit for Persons Reported Missing (UBPD) successfully completed the third forensic intervention in the Arauca cemetery. On this occasion, the team of experts recovered 18 bodies of people missing in the context of the armed conflict, corresponding to events that occurred before December 1, 2016.

With this intervention, the UBPD accumulated a total ofe 34 bodies recovered of the 74 that were identified as buried in the Arauca cemetery.

All of these bodies are related to cases of forced disappearances that occurred as a result of the armed conflict. This effort constitutes a fundamental part of a comprehensive humanitarian search process, which aims The objective is to restore dignity and close cycles of uncertainty for affected families.

You may be interested in: They deliver remains of three victims of forced disappearance in Urabá Antioquia and in Chocó

The procedure was carried out using the Post Mortem Correspondence Information Verification method, this approach combined the analysis of the bodies recovered with the autopsies carried out by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, which made it possible to establish the causes of death and advance in the identification of the victims.

During this intervention, the forensic team faced a significant challenge due to the conditions of some bodies, that still preserved soft tissues.

According to the forensic doctor Luis Carlos Salgado, this situation was attributed to various causes, including the environmental conditions and burial methods.

You may be interested in: ‘Search Route for Persons Reported Missing’ collected 300 new requests

The UBPD highlighted the magnitude of the phenomenon of disappearances in the region “throughout Arauca there is a universe of 2,584 people who were missing. Every day, the Search Unit team receives more requests to find those who are still missing,” stated representatives of the entity.

This humanitarian effort not only seeks to recover the bodies, but also provide answers to families who have lived in uncertainty for years.