By Micah Jonah
February 17, 2026
Colombian authorities have identified the remains of Camilo Torres, a Catholic priest who joined the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group and was killed in combat in 1966.
The identification was confirmed on Monday by the Search Unit for Disappeared People (UBPD), a state body established under the 2016 peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to locate and identify victims of the country’s six-decade armed conflict.
Torres, who joined the National Liberation Army only months before his death, was killed in February 1966 during a clash with government troops in eastern Santander province. His burial site had remained unknown for six decades.
UBPD Director, Luz Janeth Forero disclosed that investigators relied on public and classified records, including documents from the military justice system, to trace where the army had interred Torres’ body after his death.
DNA tests conducted on bone samples discovered in 2024 at a military cemetery in tBucaramanga were matched with genetic samples taken from the exhumed remains of Torres’ father, Calisto, in Bogotá.
“After 60 years of disappearance, the search unit found, identified and completed a dignified handover of Father Camilo Torres,” Forero stated.
Torres, a proponent of liberation theology – a Catholic movement focused on social justice and anti-imperialism — came from a prominent Bogotá family. His decision to join the ELN made him a controversial figure within the Catholic Church, which historically distanced itself from his armed struggle.
The remains were formally handed over on Sunday to Javier Giraldo, a Catholic priest and longtime advocate for victims of Colombia’s conflict. Giraldo confirmed that Torres will be buried at Bogotá’s National University, where he once studied and served as chaplain.
The UBPD, which began operations in 2017, has located nearly 5,000 sets of remains and returned about 700 to families. It has also found around 500 people previously reported as missing alive.
Colombia’s armed conflict, involving guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and state forces, has left more than 135,000 people missing over the past six decades. The identification of Torres’ remains marks a symbolic milestone in ongoing efforts to account for victims of the conflict.
