In Putumayo, a new hope is born to find lost relatives

A Missing Persons Unit (UBPD) has started functioning in this department.

The Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons (UBPD), a mechanism of the comprehensive system of truth, justice, reparations and non-repetition arising from the Peace Agreement, arrives in Puerto Asis (Putumayo) to begin their search. disappeared in context and due to armed conflict.

In this city, the UBPD team is responsible for relations with victims, organizations and social actors; Inter-institutional formation at the local level and development of information collection activities on missing persons and their whereabouts. In addition, his task is aimed at counseling the participation of victims at each stage of the search process, as well as the pedagogy of access to the mechanism.

The regional headquarters of Puerto Asis has been established at the headquarters of Pastoral Social at carrera 25 #14-30 (El Recreo district). People with information about the missing can go there and take whatever they think is important to the search: documents, footage, newspaper clippings, papers or photographs.

It is not necessary to repeat the procedures that have already been done with other institutions. Those who have information that helps determine what happened and the whereabouts of the missing person may also be present.

It should be remembered that since it is a humanitarian and extrajudicial mechanism, the information received or produced by the UBPD does not have the nature of evidence in legal proceedings or assignment of duties.

Extinction magnitude

• In this department, according to the Memory and Conflict Observatory of the National Center of Historical Memory (CNMH), around 2,980 disappearances were registered during the conflict.
• According to this source of information, 80% of the records are concentrated in the five municipalities of Putumayo; 748 cases in Puerto Assisi; 720 in the Guamuezi Valley; 383 in Orito; 329 in San Miguel, 219 in Mocoa.
• In Putumayo, 81% of extinction victims were men (2,433 records), 13% were women (396 records); and there is no information from 151. However, those searching for the missing are mostly women.
• The highest number of disappearances was recorded in 2000, with 422 cases.
• 3.9% of indirect victims (relatives or intimates of the disappeared) claimed to have gone to institutions to report the disappearance, according to the CNMH.

Despite the above, the universe of the missing is still unknown. Each institution has different statistics that are subject to its functions or mandates. As such, the raised numbers are underreporting.

territorial location

UBPD is also present in Cali (Valle del Cauca); San Jose del Guaviare (Guaviare); Villavicencio (Goal); Barranquilla (Atlantic); Apartadó and Rionegro (Antioquia); Siklejo (Sucre); Cúcuta (Northern Santander) and Barrancabermeja (Santander).

By the end of the year, the UBPD plans to be present in seven additional cities to complement 17 regional teams responsible for searching for the missing: victims of enforced disappearances, kidnappings, illegal recruitment, as well as members and members of the Public Force. members of outlaw groups who disappeared in the context of the conflict.