The priest Camilo Torres Restrepo, in a file picture, Archdiocese of Cali / Univalle
The ELN investigates the memory of a myth. The guerrillas asked President Gustavo Petro this Wednesday, in the middle of the peace negotiations taking place in Mexico City, to locate and hand over the body of Camilo Restrepo Torres, one of the historical figures of the ELN. The guerrilla priest, one of the pioneers of liberation theory, died 57 years ago today in combat with the Colombian army. The military hid the body and nothing has been heard from her since.
“His body is still missing from the Colombian state, which has refused to hand it over to the popular class. President Petro’s government also has this responsibility, which is why we respectfully ask him to return Camilo to the people, and with his remains we can continue to honor his memory,” the guerrilla said in a statement.
Camilo Torres has often been compared to Che Guevara, and like the Argentine guerrilla killed in a Bolivian town, his remains have not been found. The military kept him hidden so that no cult would form around his grave.
The priest died in 1966 in San Vicente de Chucurí, in a jungle area in Santander department, and it is there that President Juan Manuel Santos said in 2016 that the state would search for the body as a gesture of goodwill towards the ELN , with which a peace process was then discussed negotiated, which Petro is now trying to complete.
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