Colombia to pay damages to 280 displaced families

The state will pay about $103,600 in damages to families forced to abandon their homes after a paramilitary takeover in the Cesar department fourteen years ago.

Close to 280 families from the town of Pelaya abandoned their land after receiving threats from paramilitary groups in February 1996. The high court of the Cesar department ruled that only the first generation of families be paid compensation, even though thirteen years later almost three generations have been affected by the displacement.

According to the most recently available statistics from Colombian social agency Accion Social, during the first six months of 2008 there were 834 people displaced from Cesar.

Aid to Colombia’s displaced population, which according to different estimates numbers between 2 and 4 million people, was worth $814 million in 2009.