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Was the process of exhumation of bodies carried out by EPM in three cemeteries in the area of influence of Hidroituango legal or not? This discussion has been going on for little more than a year and there is still no concrete answer.
And it is that since October of last year, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) asked EPM all the documentation that certifies that in these cemeteries (Orobajo, Barbacoas and La Fortuna) an exhaustive search process was carried out in the area of influence of the project to verify whether there were bodies of victims of enforced disappearance there.
The controversy arose after the approval of the precautionary measures by the JEP, which when reviewing the skeletal remains that were in the Osteology laboratory of the University of Antioquia found two that did have such signs of violent death. }
In other words, at the time of the exhumation, the Prosecutor’s Office should have been informed about this finding, since it would go from being an administrative transfer of bone remains to a forensic judicial process. Something that did not happen.
The Office of the Prosecutor’s Office of Transitional Justice responded a questionnaire to EL TIEMPO about this process.
One of the JEP’s criticisms of this process has been the lack of a universe of people reported missing in that area. Does the Prosecutor’s Office already have this information?
The Transitional Justice Directorate requested an updated report on these figures from the Antioquia Prosecutor’s Office, and cross-checks were made with the mission bases to which the Transitional Justice Directorate has access, reporting a total of 307 bodies distributed as follows: Ituango ( 95), Sabanalarga (11), Santa Fe De Antioquia (3), Buritica (7), Peque (33), Liborina (5), Toledo (4), Olaya (3), San Andrés de Cuerquia (6), Valdivia (72), Yarumal (53) and Briceño (15).The task of consolidating the figures for Forced Disappearance is very complex given the duplication of records of the same direct victims and the absence of a complaint of this scourge in the Attorney General’s Office.
Is the communication sent by the Prosecutor’s Office to EPM about the request to intervene in the cemeteries an endorsement or permission to do so?
At no time was authorization, permission or endorsement given to Empresas Públicas de Medellín to carry out exhumation proceedings in the Cemeteries of Orobajo (Sabanalarga), Barbacoas (Peque) and La Fortuna (Buriticá); This taking into account that the competence to carry out exhumation proceedings lies in the head of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation. The communication sent to EPM in November 2017 relates only to the Administrative Transfers of people who died naturally who were buried in the aforementioned Cemeteries.
How many interventions to search for missing persons did the Prosecutor’s Office previously make in these 3 cemeteries?
In February 2012, several exhumation proceedings were carried out in the Orobajo village cemetery, recovering five bodies, which have already been identified and duly handed over to their families. These victims correspond to the so-called Orobajo Massacre, which occurred on July 12, 1998.
Exhumation proceedings were carried out in the Barbacoas cemetery in April 2015, six bodies were recovered, of which five are in the Human Identification laboratory and one was duly delivered to their relatives.
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In the La Fortuna cemetery, no exhumation proceedings were carried out by the Group for the Search, Identification and Surrender of Disappeared Persons of the Transitional Justice Directorate of the Attorney General’s Office.
How many interventions did the Prosecutor’s Office make throughout the Hidroituango project area?
The Group for the Search, Identification and Surrender of Disappeared Persons of the Transitional Justice Directorate of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, It has carried out 204 exhumation proceedings in the Hidroituango area of interference. Of these bodies, 120 have been given to their next of kin with dignity. Likewise, 26 prospection procedures have been carried out in this same area.
Was the Prosecutor’s Office informed about at least two remains that were found in these cemeteries with alleged signs of violent death? If so, why was the exhumation process not stopped?
Starting in 2018, the anthropologist commissioned by EPM to carry out the administrative transfers of the deceased persons in a condition of natural death who were buried in the Orobajo, Barbacoas and La Fortuna cemeteries, attended the Office of the Public Prosecutor 221 GRUBE, whom in Verbally stated that in the cemetery of the village of Barbacoas, Jurisdiction of the Municipality of Peque (Antioquia), there was a body that apparently had died violently, therefore and by strict indications of the Prosecutor, it did not carry out any procedure or excavation in this regard, placing the fact of present to the Prosecutor’s Office through an Official Letter dated January 24, 2018, proceeding as indicated on several occasions, that is, what they should do before a body in Unidentified Condition or where it existed doubt related to his death.
Immediately, Office 221 GRUBE proceeded in accordance and sent a team of forensic criminologists to the area, which carried out the respective exhumation procedure.. The body recovered is currently in the Human Identification Center of the Technical Investigation Body of (CTI) Medellín, Antioquia.
It should be noted that the GRUBE Prosecutors warned EPM, from the beginning of the administrative transfers, that “if in the cemeteries to intervene, there are bodies in a condition of unidentified (CNI), they cannot be intervened.
For this reason, and if these bodies exist, it would be necessary to carry out an inventory and record of each one of them to make substantive decisions on these cases ”. EPM only reported this case to the Prosecutor’s Office and did not send any report related to the discovery of bodies in a condition of unidentified (CNI) or bodies with signs of violent death.
Does the finding of bodies with signs of violent death in these cemeteries already intervened indicate that there may have been failures or errors in the interventions made previously?
The Group for the Search, Identification and Delivery of Disappeared Persons of the Directorate of Transitional Justice intervened all the places where the exhumations and / or surveys were carried out, taking into account the total information that the residents of the townships of Barbacoas and Orobajo provided to the investigative work developed by the Fiscal Office in charge. EPM did not send the Attorney General’s Office any report related to the discovery of bodies in a condition of unidentified (CNI) or bodies with signs of violent death.
ALEJANDRO MERCADO
EL TIEMPO correspondent
@ AlejoMercado10
