The ELN pursues the memory of a myth. The guerrilla has asked President Gustavo Petro this Wednesday, in the midst of the peace negotiations that are 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 the Liberation Theory, died 57 years ago today in combat with the Colombian Army. The military hid the body and since then nothing has been heard from it.
“His corpse is still missing by the Colombian State, which has refused to hand it over to the popular class. The government of President Petro also has this responsibility, so we respectfully summon him to return Camilo to the people and we can continue to honor his memory with his mortal remains, ”the guerrilla explained 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 located. The military have kept him hidden so that a cult would not form around his burial.
The priest died in San Vicente de Chucurí, in a jungle area in the department of Santander, in 1966, and right there President Juan Manuel Santos, in 2016, said that the State would look for the body as a gesture of goodwill with the ELN, with who was then negotiating a peace process that Petro is now trying to finalize.
subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the key information on the country’s current affairs.
newsletter
Analysis of current affairs and the best stories from Colombia, every week in your mailbox
RECEIVE THE
#ELN #asks #Petro #hand #body #guerrilla #priest #Camilo #Torres #Restrepo