Vice President Angelino Garzon will request the prosecutor general and the police on Tuesday to expedite the investigation into the disappearance of a USB memory stick containing the details of people involved in the land restitucion process, Caracol Radio reports.
The memory stick in question was stolen from the NGO “Victims Association for the Restitution and Access to Lands” in Apartado, Antioquia on January 17, this year.
Although it was eventually recovered a week later, Garzon is looking to push the investigation along in order to establish what happened to the information on the stick, see if what was used in any subsequent crimes, and to punish those responsible.
Since August 7, seven leaders and people involved in the land restitution process have been murdered, with three coming within a 24 hour period in March. It is plausible that those committed after January 17 could be related to details stolen from the memory stick.
In March the government announced the creation of a new security body to try and protect both leaders and recipients of the land restitution process in the future from any form of persecution.
Since assuming office, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has pushed forward the program of land restitution which will last until 2014, aiming to give back to peasants and displaced people nearly 6.2 million acres forcibly taken by paramilitaries, guerrillas, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians.