Communications Department
35 victims settled in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga participated in the construction of the report ‘Somos Memoria’, on forced disappearance in Santander, carried out by the Oral Archive of Memory of the Victims (Archivo Oral de Memoria de las Víctimas-AMOVI-UIS), which was delivered in a solemn ceremony to the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y No Repetición -SIVJRNR), from the hands of the relatives of the persons disappeared in the framework of the Colombian armed conflict in Santander.
During the event, the victims were able to express their requests, fears, anxieties and expectations to the representatives of the Truth Commission, the Unit for the Search for Missing Persons (Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dadas por Desaparecidas -UBPD) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz-JEP), agencies that make up the SIVJRNR, in addition to hearing the progress of these institutions in terms of justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
In addition, six more reports were delivered, some of them up to three volumes per text, written by AMOVI-UIS in collaboration with universities and human rights organizations, describing different victimizing events that devastated Santander and the country.
In the first row, represented with a candle, were symbolically present the 63 missing persons who with their stories gave shape to the report that now becomes a valuable research input for the JEP in the search for justice and reparation for the victims.
“Justice is everyone’s issue, and it has affected all of us Colombians, we are all victims. We need immediate justice for the direct victims, but that justice also repairs all of us and democracy,” said Professor Ivonne Suárez Pinzón, director of AMOVI-UIS. On behalf of the JEP was present the magistrate Lily Rueda Guzmán, a UIS graduate, who told the victims that she will always work with her hand on her heart and agreed to meet with the protagonists of the event in a more personal space to listen to their stories and resolve their doubts.
