Communications Department

The Archivo Oral de Memoria de las Víctimas (Oral Archive of Victims’ Memory – AMOVI-UIS) will present to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz – JEP) an extensive report on forced disappearance in Santander, which brings together 63 cases related to this victimizing event, with the participation of 35 victims from the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga.

Following the interest expressed by the Departmental Victims’ Roundtable, AMOVI-UIS, with the support of the Government of Santander and the Universidad Industrial de Santander, set about the task of contacting the victims to begin the investigation, which is intended to be delivered to the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y No Repetición-SIVJRNR), so that it can become not only a record of historical memory, but also an input for the JEP in the search for justice and reparation for the victims.

For this reason, on Thursday, January 27th, AMOVI-UIS, together with the victims participating in the investigation, will deliver the final report to the SIVJRNR, a system formed by the Truth Commission, the Unit for the Search for Missing Persons and the JEP, the latter being the body tasked with administering the justice that the victims of these scourges yearn for.

“The victims have told us that they are relieved to be heard, but this listening cannot stop there, since they have given us their voice and trust with a purpose, which in addition to building memory, is also to seek justice, and for this to happen these stories and investigations must be taken to the SIVJRNR, and fundamentally to the JEP”, said Professor Ivonne Suárez Pinzón, director of AMOVI-UIS, who has led the creation and delivery of seven reports to this system.

The ceremony will also have a symbolic component that seeks to dignify the victims, since they will be the ones to physically deliver the report to the representatives of the different organizations present. With this act, the protagonists will be able to recognize themselves in this investigation, in an act of reparation and in response to the trust placed in AMOVI-UIS for the preparation of this report. According to figures from the Unit for the Search for Missing Persons, 4,234 people have been reported missing in Santander in the context of the Colombian armed conflict.