Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC said Saturday it wants nine million hectares of agricultural land to be given to poor farmers as part of an eventual peace deal with the government.
The demand is only one of ten new demands the guerrilla group exposed on one of their websites.
SOURCE: The FARC’s ten new demands (Spanish)
According to chief FARC negotiator “Ivan Marquez,” the government has a duty to “settle its historic debt” which according to the FARC can be done by redistributing underused land owned by wealthy landowners or land that is seized from illegal armed groups and drug traffickers.
The land redistribution plans exposed by the FARC are similar to those of the United Nations, that in 2011 also called for land redistribution to decrease Colombia’s high inequality rate and diminish the country’s violence.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, 1.15% of Colombia’s population owns 52% of the country’s land, which according to the UNDP is one of the main reasons Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America.
MORE: UN proposes rural reform in Colombia to fight poverty and violence
The FARC and government negotiators have been discussing land reform as the first and most important of five points that must be agreed upon before signing a permanent peace agreement between the state and the rebels who have been fighting the state since 1964.
BACKGROUND: Agreement between FARC and government about the agenda of peace talks