While the Government says they can not trade the bodies of slain FARC
commanders ‘Raúl Reyes’ and ‘Iván Ríos’ for that of a deceased hostage,
because the corpses were already surrendered to the rebels’ families,
relatives of ‘Reyes’ say they never received his remains.
A manuscript of the Prosecutor General’s Office known to Caracol Noticias says that the body was left in a funeral home, known by his ex-wife María Hilda Collazos Claros
But according to the television station, the children en ex-wife of Luis Edgar
Devía, better known as Raúl Reyes, say they never received the remains
of the FARC’s number two in command.
In the Prosecutor General document — dated march 7, 2008, six days after the death of the FARC commander — a prosecutor asks the coroner to deliver the body to a funeral home in the Caquetá department, after reaching agreement with the rebel’s ex-wife.
Rodolfo Ríos, attorney of Collazos Claros, says his client had agreed the body would not be cremated and handed over to her, so the rebel leader could be buried in Bogotá. However, she never saw the body of her ex-husband.
The son of ‘Raúl Reyes’ supports the story of his mother and sent a letter to opposition senator Piedad Córdoba saying “Unfortunately, the Government did not deliver the body of our father, brother and uncle ‘Raúl Reyes’ to the mother of his children, when she came to collect it in name of the family.”
The family says to have no idea where the body is, while authorities repeat they handed over the remains.
The FARC wanted the Government to hand over the remains, so they could swap them for the body of Julián Ernesto Guevera, a police official who died while in FARC captivity.