After 26 years of searching, the remains of a young woman recruited by the FARC are handed over

( Spanish) — The Colombian Unit for the Search for Disappeared Persons (UBPD) reported this Wednesday that, through a territorial work group in the municipality of Villavicencio, they handed over the remains of Ruby Pardo to their relatives.

Pardo was recruited by the now dissolved Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) in 1989, in a rural area of ​​the department of Meta, when she was 15 years old. The UBPD report indicates that, a year later, her sister Yolanda Pardo was also recruited.

Based on family history, Ruby Pardo disappeared 8 years after being recruited, when she was a guerrilla combatant and in the framework of the armed conflict. At that time, the Pardo Morales family was displaced from their farm due to threats related to the conflict. Since the disappearance of Ruby Pardo, the search for her was led by her sister, who after the peace agreement between the government and the FARC accepts that process.

In November 2021, the UBPD reported a humanitarian action in the municipal cemetery of San Juanito, Meta, in which a body was recovered; and after the identification process of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, the identity was confirmed.

Since March 2022, the UBPD team began looking for Pardo’s family, who, when contacted, provided the DNA samples that were confirmed.

Finally, the entity says, in March 2023 the family received and buried the remains with dignity.

“The work of the Search Unit has been very important to me because it gave me oxygen. It took a weight off my shoulders that I had not knowing anything about my sister’s whereabouts, for that I am very grateful to the entity, because it has given me life and the desire to move forward. I already have my sister, I can visit her and I can bring her a bouquet of blue flowers that she liked so much, ”said Yolanda Pardo, according to the statement.

The Regional Search Plan for Meta groups 26 municipalities in the sub-regions of Alto and Medio Ariari, Capital and Piedmonte, Central East, Duda Guayabero and Puerto Gaitán. To date, it includes a universe of 7,110 people reported missing in that department alone. The UBPD assures that it has delivered 32 bodies to their families, as part of the regional plan.

In general, the tasks of the UBPD and similar entities focus on people who have been forcibly disappeared, kidnapped, recruited, members of the public forces or illegal armed groups who disappeared during the hostilities and whose whereabouts are unknown.