Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos Wednesday granted titles to land once owned by deceased leaders of the rebel group FARC to 342 peasant families in the south of the country.
The President announced that over 247,000 acres of land in the area around San Vicente del Caguan in the southern department of Caqueta will be granted to 342 families.
“In this specific case with ‘Mono Jojoy’ nearly 130 thousand hectares [321,237 acres] of land that we identified was in the hands of front men for ‘Mono Jojoy’, front men that will see justice, and we are recuperating these lands to eventually hand them over to the peasants [small farmers],” said Santos to a group in San Vicente del Caguan.
The recuperation of these lands was apparently brought to head when investigators found files on the computer of the fallen FARC second in command that had the names of front men he used to hide his land holdings.
BACKGROUND: FARC commander ‘Mono Jojoy’ killed
Colombia’s Minister of Agriculture, Juan Camilo Restrepo, told W Radio Wednesday that the lands had always belonged to the Colombian state, “but in the context of the conflict, rebels had taken them over.”
San Vincente Del Caguan was the hub of a demilitarized zone established by former President Andres Pastrana in January 1999. The zone stretched over 16,220 square miles and became a safe haven for the FARC until February 2002 when Pastrana broke off talks. The FARC had maintained a high presence in the area in the years following the failed peace talks.
MORE: Santos vows not to abandon San Vicente del Caguan
Sources
- Incoder dice que ganaderos fueron testaferros de Farc en el sur del país (LA F.M.)
- Ganaderos fueron testaferros de Farc en el sur de país: Incoder (Caracol Radio)
- Santos entregara a campesinos tierras usurpadas por las FARC (El Universal)
- Gobierno recuperará tierras despojadas por las Farc en San Vicente del Caguán (RCN La Radio)
- 342 familias de San Vicente del Caguan recibieron titulos de propiedad de tierras (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia)