The tragedy of Duván, who appeared dead after a month missing

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Duván Felipe Barros was the eldest of three brothers. He was 17 years old: happy, rapper and rebellious, as young people tend to be at that age. The day she disappeared, last Saturday June 5, she went out to the portal of the Americas, with two cousins ​​and their mother, in the middle of another day of the national strike. They stayed for a while, but at night they decided to leave, and he stayed in the place.

Since that day, the family has never heard from Duván. They immediately began their search in the sector, with publications through social networks, with the help of social organizations and even the support of entities such as the Secretary of Government, but they found nothing. It was learned that the authorities had found a lifeless body in a water channel near the portal, but they dismissed that it was him. That day he was dressed in a yellow shirt, pants, cap, and black shoes. They visited police stations, hospitals and went with photographs in hand to Forensic Medicine. However, the answer was that it was not there. Nowhere. More than a month passed, and nothing. The only thing that Duván's relatives had been able to find out among some alleged witnesses is that that day there were clashes with the Esmad and that several young people had been taken away by the police, and that perhaps he was among them. (You may be interested in: "The driver He killed my daughter from a truck, swiped his hands and left')“They called us on Saturday night to tell us that there was someone with the characteristics of the child, they called us on Sunday morning to Forensic Medicine and we found him there. We wondered why they didn't tell us from the first days we went to look for information," Rafael Salazar, the young man's uncle, told EL TIEMPO, who had to recognize his nephew. He said he saw him with blows, mainly to the face. With a fractured septum, with injuries near the head.

Official information revealed by the commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, General Eliécer Camacho, reports that Duván died the same day that he went out with his cousins ​​to the Portal de las Américas (on Saturday, June 5) and that they were members of the CTI of the Prosecutor's Office who carried out the removal and who took the body to Legal Medicine. According to the senior official, although Legal Medicine had Duván since June 6, due to a mix-up, only this weekend was confirmed to his family full identity. “The National Police has no responsibility for these events. Even the young man's mother has said that he did not belong to any front line nor was he doing any protest activity. Likewise, the Prosecutor's Office is carrying out the pertinent activities to clarify the facts, because they have statements that show that it would be a drowning,” said General Camacho. (In addition: They investigate the death of a young man on the North highway bridge) The Nydia Foundation Érika Bautista, who has accompanied the family in this process and who was part of the Duván search team, reported via Twitter that the young man had appeared lifeless. "We demand that the Prosecutor's Office and Legal Medicine report without delay the cause and manner of death, urgent clarification of the facts and the investigation and punishment of those responsible," they expressed. There are still many doubts to be resolved, mainly, why they were not informed to the family at the time that Duván's body was in the Legal Medicine morgue. Given the first explanations from the authorities that the young man had drowned, they said that they are thinking of requesting another opinion and that they do not believe that Duván fell and drowned in the pipe where he appeared lifeless. “At the request of his relatives, we will provide the necessary accompaniment and support for the funeral service. We ask the Prosecutor's Office for speed in the respective investigation under the principle of due process”, they expressed from the Secretary of Government. For now there is a grieving family that cries out for justice.

Óscar Murillo Mojica. Bogotá Writing. THE WEATHER.​Twitter:@oscarmurillom

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