Agrarian reform moves forward despite land grabbers

Government makes great strides in agrarian reform

President Gustavo Petro highlighted that, in just two and a half years, his administration has handed over 570,000 hectares of land to peasants, far exceeding previous governments.

During the Council of Ministers at the Casa de Nariño, Petro stated: “The 570,000 hectares that this government has handed over will go down in history as a great achievement that proves that agrarian reform is possible in Colombia.”

He criticized the government of Juan Manuel Santos for not handing over “a single hectare,” despite this being agreed upon in the Peace Agreement.

During Iván Duque's administration, only 13,000 hectares were distributed by the Special Assets Society (Sociedad de Activos Especiales, SAE), which at the time was permissive with front men linked to paramilitaries who had dispossessed peasants years earlier.

“More than 278,855 hectares have been purchased for peasants, which is 273 times more land than the Duque government and 32 times more than the Santos era. In addition to the 98,395 hectares purchased for ethnic communities, which mark a before and after in the country's history,” said Felipe Harman, director of the National Land Agency.

Currently, 696,000 hectares are in Peasant Reserve Zones and 900,000 in ethnic territories, strengthening the redistribution policy.

The government has called for the full force of the law to be brought to bear on people occupying vacant land or land intended for victims of the conflict, as in the various cases that have arisen under this administration.
A few days ago, in Puerto Berrío, Antioquia, authorities recovered 2,330 hectares that belonged to the paramilitary leader alias Macaco and had been illegally occupied by private individuals for years.

Concentration and inequality in access to land persist

The Minister of Agriculture, Martha Carvajalino, revealed alarming figures on land tenure in Colombia:

• 65% of fertile land is in the hands of 1% of landowners
• 1.8 million families have less than one hectare each.
• Cattle ranching (30 million head) occupies 30 million hectares, which is equivalent to “one cow per hectare.”
• In addition, of 11 million hectares within the agricultural frontier, only 4 million are in full production, and there is a potential for 14 million.

The minister pointed out that the regions with the highest concentration of land are the Caribbean Coast and the Middle Magdalena, where paramilitary groups, land grabbers, and lack of law enforcement have historically operated.

One-third of Congress linked to land grabbing

A preliminary report by the National Land Agency (Agencia Nacional de Tierras, ANT) revealed that around one-third of Congress members are allegedly involved in cases of irregular accumulation of vacant land. Among the names mentioned are:

• Senator Marcos Daniel Pineda (Cereté, Córdoba).
• Senator Liliana Esther Vitar (Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba).
• Senator Lidio García Turbay (San Juan de Nepomuceno, Bolívar).
• Representative Ana Paula García (family ties in Córdoba).
• Senator Javid Méndez (properties in Vichada and Valle del Cauca).
• Relatives of Senator Paloma Valencia (under investigation in Vichada and Tolima).

The director of the ANT, Felipe Harman, confirmed that legal action is currently underway to recover these lands.

Land distribution in Magdalena Medio and new decree on the way

The government, through the ANT, handed over 24,000 hectares to farmers and victims of the conflict in Magdalena Medio.

Social leaders such as Milena Quirós Jiménez and beneficiaries such as Will Davinson Pardo celebrated the measure, describing it as a step toward rural justice.

Finally, the government is preparing a new decree to speed up land redistribution through direct transfers at no cost to the budget.
According to Harman, this measure could increase the hectares available from the Victims' Reparation Fund from 57,000 to 158,000 hectares and from the SAE from 67,000 to 428,000 hectares.

Photo: Colombia Informa