Colombia's no-name dead

Hernan Montoya is the town mystic in Colombia's Puerto Berrio. He conducts ceremonies for souls in purgatory, particularly those who are among the "no name dead"  Photo/Nadja Drost

In Colombia, the Magdelena River snakes the length of a country long caught in the coils of drug and political violence.

And the river has become a conveyer of the dead.

A place to dump the bodies. In downstream cities like Puerto Berrio, it's given rise to a kind of obsession with the dead, where strangers claim and name the floating remains.

But what began as compassion, has turned into a competition. Canadian journalist Nadja Drost reports the living even expect favours from the dead.

Hear Nadja's documentary 

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