The connection and forced recruitment of people to armed groups were the causes of the greatest disappearances in Meta. The story of Julián *, who lost contact with his family since 2003, is one of many stories of suffering in the territory.
The search family remembers that Julián was recruited in 2003 by the extinct Farc-Ep when he was a minor. After he joined the ranks, it took six years for his relatives to hear from him. Rarely, in the midst of the heat of war, did they have the opportunity to visit him.
According to information received by his family, Julián died as a result of a combat with the National Army. The details of the circumstances were also corroborated years later by former combatants who signed the Peace Agreement.
As in many families this caused a feeling of desolation and hopelessness. In this case, the one who was most affected was her mother, who had health problems, lost her vision and was immersed in deep pain.
When the Search Unit for Missing Persons -UBPD- emerges, Julián’s family decides to resume the search process. “The relatives approached the entity, provided the information they had managed to collect about what happened to their loved one and, through this data that was received initially, progress was made in information collection actions, inter-institutional consultations and coordination. with other institutions until finding a body that matched that of the person reported missing.”said Diana Paola Viveros, coordinator of the UBPD in Villavicencio.
“This body was fully identified by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and subsequently, through coordination with the Prosecutor’s Office, we have advanced the dignified delivery to the family”he added.
After the process with the Search Unit, the family’s hope increased. Her thoughts and desires were focused on giving him a dignified farewell, under her family beliefs and traditions. A dream was decisive in moving forward and reaching the end of the search.
In dreams Julián appears to her
When the identification process was carried out by Legal Medicine, Julián’s mother had a dream that marked her life and with which this humanitarian mission begins to close the cycle of pain.
In dialogue with the UBPD collaborators, she assured that her son appeared to her in a dream and let her know that he would arrive, so she was completely certain that the body that had an oriented identity was her son’s body. The supernatural event forever marked both the family and the public servants.
On the day of the dignified delivery, mother, father, brothers, sisters, nephews and other relatives were present at the meeting with the Prosecutor’s Office and the Search Unit during the dignified delivery of the body. There the judicial process and the procedures that led to the full identification of Julián to be subsequently handed over were explained. Likewise, the family received psychosocial support from the Meta Government, the ICRC and the Victims Unit.
Finally, the Search Unit provided support to the family to move Julián’s body to the Villavicencio cemetery. There they fired him but with the certainty of knowing where the body of his loved one who had been missing for two decades rests.
Source: Search Unit for Persons Reported Missing -UBPD-