Since 1964, Colombia has endured a grueling armed conflict between the government, far-right paramilitary groups, far-left guerrillas, and crime syndicates involved mainly in the drug trade. 

The more than six decades of violence ravaged the country, leaving an estimated 450,000 victims, with an additional one million fleeing into exile and another eight suffering internal displacement.

Perhaps the most shattering evidence of the Colombian tragedy is the number of people who saw their friends and loved ones vanish without a trace: according to official data, a staggering 135,000 people have been forcibly disappeared since the beginning of the conflict. 

In 2016, the government and the armed guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), two of the main antagonists, reached a peace agreement. 

And although the ceasefire was violated numerous times and the conflict has not ended entirely, the treaty did lead to the fulfillment of a long-standing demand from victims’ families: the creation of a state organ tasked with searching for the disappeared.

The division, officially called the Unit for the Search of Persons Deemed Disappeared, was set up as an extrajudicial proceeding, meaning there would be no legal consequences for those responsible for the crimes. This sprang from the endeavor’s main goal: to find as many disappeared people as possible, regardless of their role. 

This has been a source of criticism in some sectors and countries. While disappearances were a terror tactic all sides used, a 2022 report by a Truth Commission showed how lopsided the responsibility actually was — 52% of the perpetrators were paramilitaries (most of whom were allied to or tolerated by the army), while 24% belonged to the FARC-EP, and 8% were state agents.

Luz Janeth Forero Martínez, a surgeon with a PhD in legal sociology who has headed the unit since 2023, was recently in Buenos Aires with members of her team. In this........

© Buenos Aires Herald