The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances states that the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Colombia has «stored» about 20,000 unidentified corpses in a hangar located at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá. The complaint was made public at the conclusion of its visit to the country on November 21.
According to the committee, the lack of infrastructure to adequately manage the bodies may have led to their storage in the airport hangar, a situation described as concerning by Carmen Rosa Vila, an expert from the committee. However, in a post on X, the National Institute of Legal Medicine denied these accusations, stating that it «is unaware of the existence of such a hangar» and has not received requests for analysis of the mentioned cases.
This information provided by the UN has raised concerns among authorities and the city itself over the distorted image it could create. Consequently, respective investigations are being conducted, led by entities such as the Bogotá Mayor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, which have already carried out an immediate inspection of the 27 hangars at the airport. They informed the public that these hangars are being used for their intended purposes, such as aircraft maintenance, and no irregularities were found. OPAIN, the entity responsible for airport management, also issued a statement.
