The Ambassador of El Salvador, Francisco Galindo Vélez, met with director of Victims Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, with the aim of consolidating a technical relationship that would strengthen the Registry of Victims of that country, as well as adapt to their own circumstances other practices implemented by the Colombian Government in the care, assistance and reparation to the survivors of internal armed conflict.
The development of the relationship of advice and exchange of experiences between the two countries will be framed in the bilateral relationship led by the chancelleries of the two nations and will seek the support of international cooperation agencies.
“The interest of El Salvador is to establish a cooperative relationship with the Unit, is to learn from all the experience they have gained over the years and see how this can be applied in what we are doing with the victims, because even 26 years after the end of the war we continue to build the peace that, in the case of El Salvador, is something that we must devote much time, we have to deal with the issue of victims to follow the reconciliation process is important, “said Ambassador Francisco Galindo at the end of meeting at the headquarters of the national address of Unit, in Bogotá downtown.
The director of Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, expressed the decision to offer support to the Central American country and exchange experiences: “What we want is to contribute with the brother country of El Salvador, help them with the experience that the Unit has acquired in all the issues and the entire repair route to the victims. The National Government, through the Unit, expresses all the support to tell them what has happened during these more than seven years with the victims of displacement and other victimizing facts and contribute technically. It will be a win-win, we will also acquire experiences from El Salvador to apply in the territory. “
In development of this bilateral intention, an operational team will be formed with officials of both entities and the first videoconference between the two countries for this topic will be held in January 2019.
The magnitude of the task developed by the Victims Unit was evident in the meeting because while in Colombia more than 8.7 million victims of armed conflict are registered, in El Salvador they are around 100 thousand and the total population of the Central American country is of 6.3 million people.
The Victims Unit is positioned as a technical adviser to other countries in Latin America, since Mexico, Peru and Guatemala had already requested support to strengthen their own processes of attention, assistance and reparation to the victims of internal armed conflicts.
