VIDEO: The Body Hunters: Colombia's real-life CSI squad
Decades of violence between leftist guerillas and right-wing paramilitary groups left large parts of the country lawless.
The brutality of the notorious drug cartels only made the violence worse.
Now the Colombian government has made it its mission to find the bodies of the missing.
On Foreign Correspondent reporter Natashya Gutierrez embeds with the CSI squad determined to find closure for the loved ones left behind.
She visits the dig sites where searches are underway and meets the criminal forensic team using new technology to build replica images from skeletal remains.
Natashya also talks to a former paramilitary soldier, forcibly recruited as a teenager, who admits his involvement in assassinations and murders.
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In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Centre party with the slogan "Colombia First," winning a seat in the chamber. His family is prominent in Colombian politics. His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was Colombia's president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco's successful 1986 presidential campaign. Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who had been hospitalised since he was shot in the head in June during a campaign event, has died, his family said. He was 39. Uribe, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 during a rally and underwent multiple surgeries before his death. "I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you," his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on social media. "Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children." Former president Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the senator's Democratic Centre party and no relation to the deceased lawmaker, wrote on social media platform X that "evil destroys everything; they killed hope". "May Miguel's fight be a light that illuminates Colombia's right path," added the former president, who was sentenced by a judge earlier in August to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X he was deeply saddened by the news. "The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible." The death of Uribe adds further tragedy to his family's fraught history. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue mission after she was kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel, headed by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Uribe himself has enjoyed a rapid political rise, becoming a recognised lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Centre party and presidential hopeful known for his sharp criticism of leftist President Gustavo Petro's administration. At 25, he was elected to Bogota's city council, where he was a prominent opponent of Petro, then the capital's mayor, criticising his handling of waste management and social programs. In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Centre party with the slogan "Colombia First," winning a seat in the chamber. His family is prominent in Colombian politics. His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was Colombia's president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco's successful 1986 presidential campaign. Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who had been hospitalised since he was shot in the head in June during a campaign event, has died, his family said. He was 39. Uribe, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 during a rally and underwent multiple surgeries before his death. "I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you," his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on social media. "Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children." Former president Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the senator's Democratic Centre party and no relation to the deceased lawmaker, wrote on social media platform X that "evil destroys everything; they killed hope". "May Miguel's fight be a light that illuminates Colombia's right path," added the former president, who was sentenced by a judge earlier in August to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X he was deeply saddened by the news. "The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible." The death of Uribe adds further tragedy to his family's fraught history. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue mission after she was kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel, headed by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Uribe himself has enjoyed a rapid political rise, becoming a recognised lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Centre party and presidential hopeful known for his sharp criticism of leftist President Gustavo Petro's administration. At 25, he was elected to Bogota's city council, where he was a prominent opponent of Petro, then the capital's mayor, criticising his handling of waste management and social programs. In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Centre party with the slogan "Colombia First," winning a seat in the chamber. His family is prominent in Colombian politics. His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was Colombia's president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco's successful 1986 presidential campaign. Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who had been hospitalised since he was shot in the head in June during a campaign event, has died, his family said. He was 39. Uribe, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 during a rally and underwent multiple surgeries before his death. "I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you," his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on social media. "Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children." Former president Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the senator's Democratic Centre party and no relation to the deceased lawmaker, wrote on social media platform X that "evil destroys everything; they killed hope". "May Miguel's fight be a light that illuminates Colombia's right path," added the former president, who was sentenced by a judge earlier in August to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X he was deeply saddened by the news. "The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible." The death of Uribe adds further tragedy to his family's fraught history. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue mission after she was kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel, headed by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Uribe himself has enjoyed a rapid political rise, becoming a recognised lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Centre party and presidential hopeful known for his sharp criticism of leftist President Gustavo Petro's administration. At 25, he was elected to Bogota's city council, where he was a prominent opponent of Petro, then the capital's mayor, criticising his handling of waste management and social programs. In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Centre party with the slogan "Colombia First," winning a seat in the chamber. His family is prominent in Colombian politics. His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was Colombia's president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco's successful 1986 presidential campaign.
