This Tuesday, June 25, marks two months since the disappearance of the priest Darío Valencia Uribe, in Pereira. The main suspect in this incident, who is in Paris, France, could provide information on the clergyman’s whereabouts, but for now he cannot be questioned.
This newspaper established that the Prosecutor’s Office will not be able to send a commission to speak with the alleged person responsible for the disappearance since this is a regulated judicial procedure that is not possible to carry out at this time because the extradition process between the governments of Colombia and France.
Two weeks ago, the bishop of Pereira, Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor Bermúdez, stated that a commission from the Prosecutor’s Office will travel to Paris to interrogate the alleged person responsible for the disappearance, but this will not be possible, at least for now.
Should be located, but not captured
It should be remembered that the main suspect traveled to Paris days after the priest’s disappearance was reported and on April 30 he was captured after that Interpol issued a red notice against him.
However, about two months after being captured, the main suspect could be free while the request for his extradition is resolved. This medium established that the French authorities would have him located, they would know where he lives and, perhaps, he would have to report periodically, but he would not be behind bars.
Father Darío Valencia and the main suspect in the disappearance.
Photo:Private file
That man was the one with whom the priest was last seen, in a video from a security camera, when they left in the religious car to an unknown destination. According to what Father Valencia told his mother on April 25, with that subject he was going to finalize the sale of his private car, a Nissan Frontier truck.
The vehicle was found abandoned days later in a car wash in the municipality of Viterbo (Caldas), with traces of blood, a bullet hole in the dashboard, shell casings and without the back seat.
‘We don’t know if he is in this world or in eternity’
Since last April 25, the bishop of Pereira, Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor Bermúdez, He has not stopped asking the authorities about the search for Father Valencia. Two months later he reiterated that request and asked parishioners to pray for quick news of one of his priests.
Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor (left), with Father Óscar Gutiérrez.
Photo:Diocese of Pereira
Monsignor Corredor asked the priests of the Diocese of Pereira that on the 25th of each month, like today, they celebrate a special Eucharist, like the one that parishioners order to do for their deceased relatives, “because we are not certain whether (he) is in this world, or is in eternity.”
It is worth remembering that a month ago the Diocese of Pereira and the relatives of Father Valencia legally constituted themselves as victims of the crime of forced disappearance in this case.
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