According to official numbers, the figure corresponds to members of the Military Forces who have not been traced since 1984.
An inter-administrative agreement has currently been signed with the UBPD to strengthen and promote the search for people reported missing in the context of and due to the armed conflict in Colombia.
The contributions from relatives are essential to contextualize the circumstances of time, mode and place that led to have more information so that the operation of the authorities is more complete.
Within the framework of the Week of Commemoration of the Disappeared, the Ministry of National Defense revealed that, in a coordinated work with the Search Unit for Missing Persons, there is information of 546 cases of disappearance of members of the Military Forces in the frame of the armed conflict in Colombia.
The figure appears after exchange and consolidation of information by the Defense sector and the UBPD, which has led to having data for identification, by the families, about the circumstances of the disappearance of military and police officers, in order to strengthen a line of work in the regional search plans that provide elements that serve to end, mainly, the suffering of their relatives.
According to the Secretary of the Council of the Ministry of Defense Alexandra González Zapata, the Military Forces have in the same way had a commitment and a contribution that have been vital to join this great effort.
The Ministry of Defense has established a series of initiatives and strategies to search for 384 members of Colombian National Army, 139 of the Police, 13 of the Colombian Aerospace Force and 10 of the Colombian Navy.
As explained by the Search Unit for Missing Persons, the contributions that relatives can provide are essential to contextualize the different circumstances of time, mode and place and to conduct the search operation.
The Inter-Administrative Agreement, signed at the end of 2024, which is currently in force, has three main working approaches. The first is to have the union of efforts to search for the disappeared military and police officers, the second is to aim to carry out pedagogical tasks to take over the mandate of the UBPD among the Military Forces and the third is to access the necessary information to strengthen the search for all the people reported missing.
The Ministry of Defense is calling on the families of Military and Police officers who are missing in the context and because of the armed conflict in Colombia to approach the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) to provide contextual information on the circumstances in which their loved ones may have disappeared, in order to carry out and draw up plans for investigation and search.
Source: Press – Ministry of National Defense
