Forensics confirms bodies found in Mesetas belong to Land Restitution Unit commission

This Friday the Land Restitution Unit (URT) confirmed that the bodies found on July 5 between the municipalities of Uribe and Mesetas, eastern department of Meta, corresponded to members of the commission missing since July 27.

The next of kin of the two applicants and the two officials of the entity have been informed by Legal Medicine that the bodies found over the weekend and taken to the entity’s offices in Villavicencio, corresponded to those of their relatives.

The bodies identified by forensic medicine belong to Karen Sulay Garay Soto, a collaborator of the entity; Yamilf Cortés Uribe and Sandra Milena Cortés Uribe, claimants in the land restitution process; and Jhon Steven Cagua, driver of the vehicle in which they were transported.

For his part, the director general of the URT, Andrés Castro, expressed his pain and his displeasure at the murder of the four citizens who had been reported missing 42 days ago while they were carrying out prosecutions in the municipality of Mesetas. .

“It is disconcerting, painful and it has broken our souls as part of the team, a team that believes in justice and does everything to mend the thousands of victims of dispossession in Colombia. Today this act of violence weeps. I want to offer my condolences to these four families. This is the first event of this type to happen to the Unit after 10 years of application of Law 1448 of 2011 ”, indicated the Director of the Unit.

The entity stressed that this is the first time that such a brutal event has occurred in the ten years of actions carried out by the Land Restitution Unit, an entity which has promised to continue to exercise its functions of reparation of the victims of the armed conflict with the return to the properties which were robbed them.

“For them, for what they represent, for their memory, we will continue our commitment to peace. For the reconciliation of this country which needs it so much. Because we won’t let these cowardly murders stop the arrival of justice on the ground», Declared Andrés Castro.

According to URT, the commission left Villavicencio on May 25 for Mesetas, where it carried out two days of work. Later, on May 27 at 3:30 p.m., while they were at a property in the village of San Isidro, contact with the group was lost.

URT leaders said on the occasion that they feared for the lives of the four missing, as they could be under the power of illegal armed groups operating in Meta.

In particular, the entity pointed out that dissident groups from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are present in the department.

Recall that this area of ​​Meta is one of the hardest hit by the internal conflict of the country, which is why the URT assured at the time that it had notified the National Police, the National Army and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. general about it. they are clarifying the facts and that Garay, Cagua, the Cortés Uribe sisters are found alive and soon.

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