PBI-Colombia accompanies Justice and Peace in the search for victims in the San Antonio Estuary in Buenaventura

On August 19, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“#Forced Disappearances in #Buenaventura: PBI accompanies @Justiciaypazcol [Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace] together with @UBPDcolombia [Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons] in search of victims in the framework of Precautionary Measures of @JEP_Colombia [Special Jurisdiction for Peace] in the San Antonio Estuary.”

Justice and Peace also tweeted:

#The picture today. Day of characterization of the San Antonio estuary before the forced disappearance in Buenaventura within the framework of the precautionary measure presented by @Justiciaypazcol other organizations and awarded by the @JEP_Colombia.”

The City Paper has reported: “The San Antonio estuary is believed to be the final resting place for hundreds of disappeared persons killed by drug-traffickers vying for control of routes, that like the San Antonio estuary, meander through overcrowded shanties.”

In April 2021, El Tiempo reported that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal had agreed to study a request from 16 organizations, including the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace and the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation for Human Rights, to order the protection of the wetlands in the south of the city so that residents would have the right to search for their missing relatives.

The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation for Human Rights (FNEB) has opposed expansion of the port because it destroys areas where they report graves.

In September 2021, Peace Brigades International made this intervention at the Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

That intervention noted: “Expansion works port in Buenaventura would irreversibly affect the location of the remains of people disappeared, as in the case of Estero San Antonio, on which the Special Jurisdiction for Peace is studying the approval of precautionary measures.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Justice and Peace Commission since 1994.