Bodies in Medellín landfill were victims of forced disappearances: Special Jurisdiction for Peace

By Latin America Reports | Created at 2025-01-25 00:41:38 | Updated at 2025-01-26 06:47:34 1 day ago
Truth

Medellín, Colombia – In a landmark declaration Thursday, Colombia’s transitional justice body, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), stated unequivocally that Medellín’s La Escombrera landfill is the site of a mass grave.

For decades, family members of people missing from the historically embattled Comuna 13 district have claimed that their relatives were buried beneath refuse on the site.

The JEP shared its findings after a more than six month excavation process searching for the bodies of people forcibly disappeared by security forces and paramilitary death squads during intense violence in the early 2000s.

Although investigators announced in December that human remains had been found, yesterday they revealed that these corresponded to at least four people, all of whom were victims of forced disappearances from 2002 to 2003.

In a press release, the JEP announced its findings after an enormous excavation project that began in July 2024, in conjunction with the Missing Persons Search Unit (UBPD). 

“In La Escombrera, residents of Comuna 13 were killed and disappeared. This judicial truth is unequivocally supported by the evidence documented by the JEP and the details of the forensic process,” read the statement. 

Investigators were also able to determine the cause of death through forensic analysis. 

“All of the victims show signs of perimortem violence, i.e., as a cause of death, and injuries compatible with firearm projectiles, specifically shots fired to the head,” according to the report. 

Additionally, investigators shared that two of the deceased were murdered at the site where they were buried. They also reported that at least one body showed signs of torture before death.

View of Medellín from La Escombrera. Image credit: Alfie Pannell

Claudia, a lifelong Comuna 13 resident who did not want to share her full name out of fear, described her reaction to the news. 

“It was incredibly moving, because there are far too many souls resting there,” she told Latin America Reports in the neighborhood surrounding La Escombrera.

This reporter was allowed access to the excavation site on Thursday. Throughout the visit, landfill workers continued to operate as normal, with trucks ferrying rubble, dirt and waste up the mountain.

Just six months ago, according to JEP officials who organized the visit, a hill of dirt and rubble had stood where today lies an open excavation pit, pockmarked by sticks colored in a code used by investigators.

Colored sticks in the excavation pit. Image credit: JEP

On a nearby ridge, several pop-up canopies sheltered police officers, forensic scientists, and members of the JEP from the afternoon sun while they meticulously searched for the missing from some 20 years ago. 

The team explained how the operation, which excavated over 37,000 cubic meters of soil and rubble from the landfill, was complicated by the risk of damaging important evidence.

“The forensic process carried out in La Escombrera was comparable to the work carried out at a crime scene,” wrote investigators in their report. 

They described how throughout the excavation, the team used diggers to scrape the soil surface, inspecting each layer for signs of human remains.

In addition to the slow, painstaking process of excavating the site, the preparation for the dig was far from simple.

JEP investigator at the excavation site. Image credit: Alfie Pannell

The first excavation of La Escombrera began in 2015 but was quickly paused. Then, in 2019, the JEP began investigating documents and witness testimonies to help locate possible burial sites.

In 2020, it concluded that there was sufficient evidence to search La Escombrera for bodies.

The excavation beginning in July 2024 came after years of preparation, which included topographical, geological, and geographical studies alongside the use of satellite and aerial imagery. 

These methods helped to define the search area, which ultimately covered 6,800 square meters of land. Only a fraction of this zone has been excavated so far.

Yesterday’s announcement marks a milestone for many victims’ families, who for decades have implored the government to search for bodies in the dump following state-sanctioned killings and disappearances in the early 2000s.

But tensions persist between members of the local community and the government.

A graffiti tribute to the mothers of victims that read “the mothers are right” was painted over by local authorities, causing uproar.

But yesterday’s statement nevertheless gives them something to hold onto. There is now an official, government record that proves that they were right about La Escombrera.

In the JEP’s statement, the justice body declared that “any attempt to cast doubt on [these findings] or suggest otherwise is, in addition to being unfounded, an offense to the victims and, above all, socially immoral.”

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