The ruling was considered historic due to it being the first in favor of family members of UP representatives, since Colombia’s Law of Victims and Land Restitution took effect in January 2012.
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In 1991, armed men arrived at the man’s property near the town of and forced him to sell it for only $5,500, but they never paid him.
One year after the sale, two unidentfied men kidnapped the UP representative on a bus near Villavicencio. He was never seen again.
Over 3,000 members of the UP party were killed between 1985 and 1994 by right-wing paramilitaries with connections within the Colombian state apparatus. The party lost its official status as a political party in 2002.
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