Palacio de Justicia: missing workers were ‘disappeared’

By Steve Hide September 7, 2019

An international court backs families claiming state agents kidnapped and killed their loved ones.

Seeking justice: Pilar Navarrete with photos of her husband who was a waiter in the Palacio de Justicia café in November 1985 during the siege.
Seeking justice: Pilar Navarrete with photos of her husband who was a waiter in the Palacio de Justicia café in November 1985 during the siege. Photos: Steve Hide

Who can you trust when the state turns against you?

It’s a question that comes to mind when talking to Pilar Navarrete, a tireless campaigner for the truth behind how her husband died. Héctor Beltrán was one of eleven innocent café workers seized and ‘disappeared’ by the Colombian military in 1985 during the aftermath of the bloody siege of Bogotá’s Palacio de Justicia.

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