In Colombia, after 43 years of impunity, relatives of victims of forced disappearance by members of the state, an event known as the collective 82, see a possibility of justice after the arrest warrant for 14 ex-policemen… Our colleague Hernán Tobar offers us more information. teleSUR
00:00And in Colombia, after 43 years of impunity, relatives of victims of forced disappearance by members of the state,
00:06event known as the Collective 82, see a possibility of justice after the arrest warning for 14 former policemen.
00:13A colleague, Hernán Tobar, with the details.
00:18Rosalba keeps the snapshot of her brother's treasures that are now indelible memories.
00:23Gustavo was arrested and disappeared in 1982.
00:25He was a student of systems engineering at the National University of Colombia and was 23 years old.
00:32The situation left a deep void in the family, but also uncertainty and insistent anguish.
00:38His memory endures in Rosalba's memories.
00:43He was an excellent son, an excellent brother.
00:47He was always looking out for us so that nothing would happen to us, so that if we needed anything.
00:55I also know that he did social work because he had a group with the Clareteans that they did social work.
01:05The group was called King Guayanta.
01:08When Gustavo disappeared, it ended.
01:10The case of Gustavo is added to that of 13 young people forcibly disappeared, arbitrarily deterred and tortured,
01:18all students who were falsely linked to a kidnapping.
01:21Later, it was known that they had no connection with the event.
01:25After this episode, the whereabouts of all these people were not again and their families are still waiting for an answer.
01:31Now they see a lot of hope and progress in terms of justice after the resolution of indictment and arrest warrant against 14 former police officers
01:41who were related to the disappearance in the Colombian capital, an event now as the Collective 82.
01:47They should tell us where they are, where they left them, what they did with them.
01:57Because the truth is that we have been like this.
02:01It is something that we can never mourn, because if they have not given them to us,
02:06then we will always be waiting for them to appear, and we can mourn them,
02:12and we can make the mourning and guarantees of no repetition.
02:17That is why I do ask for them to be punished,
02:20because if they had been punished from the beginning,
02:25we would not count so many disappearances that have occurred here in Colombia.
02:32After 43 years of tardless struggle of relatives and defenders against impunity,
02:38they are waiting for the determination of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office
02:41against the violation of human rights to clarify the truth about what happened
02:45and to establish effective search mechanisms to defend the young people
02:49and punish those responsible for the crime.
02:51In a case that for many years was in the military criminal justice system
03:01and went through several prosecutors until last year,
03:05it was delegated to a Specialized Prosecutor of the Directorate Against Human Rights Violations
03:10who started the file and the request presented by the victims
03:14until issuing an important decision
03:17for finding the necessary elements of criminal responsibility.
03:22The victims' lawyers took the case
03:27to the International Commission of Human Rights in 1992,
03:31who pointed out that the state had failed to comply with its obligation
03:34to respect the life and liberty of the young people,
03:36and in 2022, the case was declared a crime against humanity,
03:40which prevented the investigation from being closed.
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