2009 Oct 01 / Servants landless Author: Photo: Federico Rios / Change / Middle
;: Cambio Source: Link : http://www.cambio.com.co/paiscambio/848/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_CAMBIO-6245631.html
Título : Siervos sin tierra Fecha de publicación : Jueves 01 de octubre de 2009 Materia : Colombia, Human Rights Collection / Series: Country Geographical
: Colombia, Chocó, Atrato, Chigorodó, Urabá, Córdoba, Sucre, Cesar, Magdalena, Putumayo, Magdalena Medio, Date of facts: 2009 entities and persons mentioned: Servants landless
In Chocó, in the Bajo Atrato, companies like Urapalma-Palmura, Asibicon, Curvaradó Palmas, Palma, Tuqueka, Selva Wet and Fregni Ochoa SA. came to support paramilitary forces and the impersonation of leaders and community members to get through fraudulent legal maneuvers, to about 35,000 acres that the Government had allocated to the Afro-Colombian land titles indicating they were "unalienable, indefeasible and inalienable."
In Santa Rosa, south of Bolivar , paramilitaries of the Bloque Central Bolívar resorted to threats and murder to force to leave their land to those who lived near a gold mine, and thus seized them and the gold zone. Since the September 19, 2006, when he was murdered mining leader Alejandro Uribe, no farmer has returned to the region.
In Chigorodó, Urabá Hundreds of farmers lost their land and had to leave because, without knowing how or when, their farms appeared on behalf of nominees of the AUC.
For example, by forging signatures and fingerprints, took possession of La Esperanza, owned by a cooperative. "A paramilitary called 'Stick' took away the legal representative of the estate deeds and days after paramilitaries seized the land and it had leased on behalf of another person."
In Sucre, Magdalena paramilitary groups have pressured landowners mortgaged or about to be arrested for selling or transferring property rights. In many cases pay less the market price, in other force to transfer property rights.
In some regions there have been cases like that of an estate in Cordoba which was awarded by Incoder a group of displaced families, but then he titled Social Action a group of rebels from the AUC and went to the police to do the eviction.
These and other authorities investigating cases and were documented by the Historical Memory Group of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, illustrated in much as 5.5 million hectares of land were taken from their owners by violent groups. These lands are now held by new owners, while their real owners, between three and 3.5 billion people-live the tragedy of displacement and retain little hope of recovering them because some of those who tried it were eliminated. The case of Yolanda Izquierdo, who was killed on January 31, 2007, is emblematic of this situation.
"It is known that drug traffickers, armed groups, and certain elites who have made alliances with these groups, besides the traditional landowners, have been with the land, "says economist Absalon Machado, director of research" The dispossession of lands and territories, "Historical Memory Group. For what and why they have taken over the strength of these areas is the concern. "
The counter
Earth has become a strategic tool of conflict. For some, landlords, employers in the field, the objective is investment into the future for their role in food security and biofuel production . "Córdoba, Sucre, Cesar, Magdalena, Urabá, Chocó, Putumayo and Magdalena Medio are critical areas for its richness in biodiversity exploitation of natural resources, "said Machado. For others, armed groups, drug traffickers ...- the purpose is to repopulate areas with their families and supporters, ensure mobility corridors and planting coca. This is happening in Chocó, the Plains and Cordoba.
Violence is the primary means of plunder. The population is forced to leave the land and flee to save life. But in many cases, offenders attend formal legal maneuvers to acquire property rights.
The Historic Memory Group's research confirms the findings of previous investigations that show the absence or failure of land reform policies and how the conflict has produced a counter that has concentrated land ownership. As the researcher Alejandro Reyes Posada in his book, Warriors and Peasants (Editorial Norma, 2009): "The agricultural landscape has been transformed by the armed conflict and drug trafficking in the direction of greater concentration of ownership, rapid displacement and impoverishment small farmers, greater underutilization of land in ranching and a reduction commercial agriculture and farming. "
The question is whether the Justice and Peace process may someday provide an answer to the displaced or have to live forever as the wretched of the earth.
forms of dispossession
- direct and indirect threats against life.
- Destruction official documentation.
- Forced Sale.
- Occupation and appropriation of state land.
- Lease with or without a contract.
- Contracts for usufruct.
- Dispossession by way of administrative fact.
- Dispossession by way of judicial fact.
- Forgery of title deeds and writings.
- Seizure and auction of abandoned property.
- Exchange and enjoyment of property.
- Abandonment and appropriation without commercial transaction.
- usufruct of the land without ownership.
- Purchase of property rights by buying mortgages and debts.
PHOTO: Displaced in southern Bolivar were forcibly removed on 3 September this land in San Jacinto.
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