Legal Medicine Institute to build regional headquarters in Chiquinquirá

Chiquinquirá will finally receive its own Legal Medicine facility after families in western Boyacá spent years waiting for violent-death cases to be handled elsewhere. The announcement came from Ariel Emilio Cortés Martínez, director of Colombia’s National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences and a native of the city.

At present, families must wait while authorities decide whether to take a body to Saboyá or to Tunja, then wait for its return to Chiquinquirá before funeral arrangements can begin. Mayor Jefferson Caro Casas described the process as an additional burden for people already dealing with grief.

The planned centre will provide forensic services for Chiquinquirá, western Boyacá and potentially northern Cundinamarca and southern Santander. Cortés said the project would benefit both residents and the administration of justice in the region.

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What happens today is that relatives of the deceased person who requires an autopsy, in addition to dealing with their pain and mourning, must wait to determine whether the body will be taken to Saboyá or to Tunja, to the Legal Medicine facility, and then wait for its return to Chiquinquirá before funeral rites can begin.

The institute and the mayor’s office signed agreement No. 125 on Sept. 1, 2026, allowing the required procedures to begin. The project has been uploaded to Colombia’s SECOP public procurement platform, and officials expect construction to start in January, with an inauguration planned for the end of 2027.

The site is in the 20 de Julio neighbourhood, about 12 blocks from the mayor’s office. It previously belonged to the Chiquinquirá Development Corporation, CORDECH, which transferred the land for the project. The mayor said funding and designs were already available to move the process forward.

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What we are giving my hometown as a gift on its anniversary is the good news that we will build its own facility for the benefit of the public.