Abstract
From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Instituto Lingüístico de Verano (ILV) was present in Colombia. It worked on the indoctrination of indigenous communities by translating the New Testament into their languages. This article presents an approach to the actions of the ILV in the country and attempts to outline its relationships with the institutional framework of the Colombian State and with the establishment of anthropology in the country. In this line, based on a documentary and ethnographic approach, the historical trajectory of the ILV is traced and its project is framed as a modern-colonial project. Among the results, it is proposed that the relationship between the ILV and Colombian anthropology was tangential in nature and was referred to the confluence of interests in indigenous policies and to a critical positioning of some anthropologists.