Diving for the disappeared: the dangerous underwater hunt for Colombia’s missing

The dark waters of San Antonio estuary are thought to hide 190 bodies, killed over decades of conflict. The first state-backed search turned to local experts to try to find them

As scuba diver Pedro Albarracín scours the muddy seabed surrounding Skull Island, opposite the Colombian port city of Buenaventura, he invokes the protection of Yemayá, goddess of the seas, and Oshun, goddess of the rivers – deities of the Yoruba faith.

The dark waters of the San Antonio estuary around him are believed to conceal the bodies of at least 190 people disappeared during Colombia’s long and violent armed conflict, a struggle that gave the islet its morbid name.

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