Medelin, Colombia (AP) — Luz Elena Galeano is eager to watch the earth sift through clothes, documents and fragments of bone.
It was a daily ritual for Galeano and for 40 other women who took turns to monitor the soil excavated from La Escombreraa landfill of debris in the outskirts of Medellin, and six ruins have been discovered over the past eight months.
This effort is Special jurisdiction for peacea court established in 2018 was caused by rebel groups that investigated and prosecuted crimes that took place during armed conflicts in Colombia, and often kept hostages for ransoms.
The Associated Press has given the excavation survey, which began in July 2024, granted access to Lascomb Brera, where the site was confirmed to be a mass grave, as the family had claimed for decades.
“We could see the ropes they were tied together and how they were all in the fetal position,” said Galeano, 61, who had been looking for her husband since disappearing in 2008.
It has been reported that nearly 500 people have been reported missing in that part of the city since the 1970s, but it is not clear how many more remains there.
Galeano, a woman’s spokesman walking for the truth, an organization for victims of Medellin’s forced disappearance, founded in 2022, said:
These families are More than 120,000 people disappeared in Colombia Between 1985 and 2016.
Galeano is looking for her husband, Luis Javier Bellard Salazar, whom she last saw on December 9th, 2008. Their last contact was a call where he told her he was home for dinner. She believes he is buried at La Escombrera and disappears into the paramilitary organization.
Shadow of military operations
La Escombrera is located on the steep hillside of Comuna 13 district and is once a strategic location for moving drugs and weapons. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, it was fought by guerrillas and paramilitary groups (groups that emerged to fight left-wing rebels), the latter eventually gaining control in the early 2000s.
Between 2001 and 2004, Colombian security forces carried out 34 military operations at Komna 13 to take control. Some of these operations are Allegations of human rights violations against civilianshas been criticized by the victims and is now being investigated by special jurisdictions for peace.
“La Escombrera has been a paramilitary foundation since at least mid-2002,” said Justice Gustavo Salazar, who leads the investigation in the special court. “People bound by these groups were there to be interrogation, torture or simply killed and taken to be buried under the belief that their bodies would never be found.”
According to Salazar, the peak period of disappearance in 2002 coincides with paramilitary control in the region. At the same time, construction waste was dumped in Las Combrera. The Las Combrera is the place that was used to extract sand before it was filled with tiled rubs. He believes that the paramilitary organization is probably the perpetrators, but he has not ruled out the possibility that other illegal groups also hid their bodies there.
Former paramilitary organizations participated The peace process since 2003allowing the people of La Escombrera to be killed and buried. They were later convicted.
The court used these testimony to define excavation areas in early 2020, along with the Attorney General’s Office and satellite image investigations.
Salazar said the court is investigating the security guard’s alleged involvement in a paramilitary group, but has not been charged to date in the Escombrera case.
The pain of being captured
Margarita Lesprepo, 62, lives in fear that her 17-year-old daughter, Carol, is buried in the Las Combrera, which can be seen from her home every day. The idea that after 23 years of searching, the possibility of her daughter being buried nearby is painful.
Carol disappeared on October 25th, 2002 during the Operacion Orion. This is a military operation at Komna 13 carried out by police, soldiers and air support at the start of management at the time. President Alvaro Uribe.
The discovery of human remains at Lascomb Brera sparked debate in Colombia. The Conservative Centro democracy defended Uribe’s security policy and Operation Orion, and the disappearance did not occur at the time, denounced the politically opportunistic peace tribunal. in contrast, Gustavo Petro, President of Colombiathe country’s first left leader saw it as a confirmation of the state and paramilitary violence he has long denounced.
Restrepo’s horror reignited in July when two bodies were found in Les Combrera. She was said to belong to a young woman between the ages of 16 and 18 who had “perfect teeth.” Now she is waiting for forensic and DNA results.
Authorities feel that the tomb is about 50 centimeters shallow, but has a highly preserved skeletal structure. This allowed them to be identified and returned to their family.
In the future, once the excavations at La Escombrera are finished, the search family hopes to build a memorial in honor of everyone.
“We want all this pain to be captured there… and we want the story to be told with truth and respect for the nation,” Restrepo said.
Despite continued search efforts, the women are not satisfied.
“Since 2001 we have reported that there may be over 350 bodies, but we have not heard,” Garano said, overlooking the neighboring mountain from the top of the reclaimed land, so she believes there are a large number of graves that have never been excavated.
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