Seven Colombian families displaced 14 years ago by paramilitaries, who two months ago returned to their villages of Blanquicet and Macondo, in the central Colombian department of Antioquia, report they are being threatened with a massacre to force them to leave again.
Rumors have been circulating since Wednesday that the recently returned families will again be forced to abandon their land, according to El Espectador.
Uraba police commander Colonel Victor Angel Gutierrez Ortega said police would meet with the community to discuss the situation, “accompanied by the army, we will evaluate the details of the situation and the circumstances of the threat and take necessary measures to provide security to the farmers.”
The troubles in Blanquicet and Macondo date back to 1996 when a paramilitary known as Lazarus “Mono Pecas” moved to the community, displacing 94 families and forced them to sell land worth 1.5 million COP per acre at 200,000 COP an acre. Since then, legal proceedings to establish ownership of the land have been problematic and carried out against the backdrop of murder.