A 60-year mystery ends as Colombian officials identify the remains of guerrilla priest Camilo Torres

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The remains of a well-known Colombian priest who joined a guerrilla group and was killed in combat six decades ago have been identified, officials in Bogota said Monday.

The Unit for the Search of Missing People said in a news conference that after conducting numerous forensic and genetic tests, and sifting through historical documents, it was able to confirm that bones found two years ago belonged to Camilo Torres, a Roman Catholic priest killed in a firefight with Colombia’s army in February 1966. The bones were found at a cemetery in the city of Bucaramanga.

“Finding Camilo after he was disappeared for sixty years is a milestone,” said Luz Janeth Forero, the director of the missing people’s unit. “It shows us that people whose relatives have been missing for a long time should not lose hope, because we have the technical and investigative capabilities to respond to their queries.”

Torres was born in 1929 to a wealthy family in Bogota, and was ordained a priest in the 1950s. He helped to establish the faculty of Sociology at Bogota’s National University and became a leading critic of a pact that kept Colombia’s traditional political parties in power. He also advocated for doctrines that called on the Catholic Church to help change social and economic structures that oppressed the poor.

In late 1965, after facing threats from authorities and becoming disillusioned with Colombia’s political system, Torres joined the National Liberation Army, a rebel group that still exists.

Torres only lasted a few months in the rebel ranks. The priest was killed in his first combat engagement at the age of 37, but the location of his body was kept secret by Colombia’s government. Soldiers apparently dumped chemicals on the body that made it harder to identify.

According to a truth commission created in 2017 following a peace deal between Colombia’s government and the nation’s largest rebel group, the FARC, more than 450,000 people were killed in the conflict, and at least 120,000 people have been reported missing.

The body count issued by the truth commission covers the period between 1986 and 2016, which is considered to be the most intense period of fighting between the state, paramilitary squads, drug traffickers and several rebel groups.

Torres’ remains will be housed at a chapel in Bogota's National University.

The search for the priest’s body intensified in 2019 after another priest, Javier Giraldo, petitioned the Unit for the Search of Missing People to find Torres' remains. Since its creation following the 2016 peace deal, the agency has helped to identify the remains of hundreds of people.

Torres has a controversial legacy in Colombia, where conservatives have long derided his decision to seek political change through violent means. However, the priest has been praised by progressives for his academic achievements and his efforts to assist the poor.

Giraldo said Monday that Torres was one of the precursors of the church doctrine known as liberation theology.

“Today we have a biographical vision of Father Camilo Torres that is more wholesome,” Giraldo said during Monday's press conference. “He was not simply a guerrilla priest.”