The EAAF participated in the 22nd National and 7th International Congress of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Bogota, Colombia, organized by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (INMLCF). Mercedes Salado Puerto, Eurasia Director for the EAAF, gave a presentation entitled “Between logic and grief: the object as evidence and symbol.” More than 1,000 professionals attended the scientific meeting.
In addition, Salado Puerto gave an in-person pre-congress course entitled “Search and identification as integral processes,” organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the National Group of Forensic Pathology of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Colombia. Salado Puerto presented the module “Current paradigms in search processes, focusing on integral and integrated identification and the management of uncertainty in forensic processes.”
Throughout the workshop, the management of corpses and their medico-legal study for identification purposes were also addressed, along with sampling and genetic information to guide cases in the context of the search and identification of missing persons. This was accompanied by practical exercises on an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional approach based on cases provided by the participants.
The pre-congress brought together more than 70 professionals in investigation, archaeology, medicine, anthropology, odontology, and forensic genetics from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, the Search Unit for Persons Deemed Missing, the Technical Investigation Corps of the Office of the Attorney General, DIJIN, and the Investigation and Accusation Unit of the JEP.