In recent days, initiatives have emerged in the livestock sector in response to the land invasions in different departments of the country. These measures of “justice in one’s own hands” have been widely questioned due to the history of “self-defense” that Colombia has had, for which the Government publicly expressed its rejection of such calls.
“That cannot be supported, it is a responsibility of the State to take care when it is needed and when it is justified, and when rights are violated it is the State, we cannot fail in that. But The self-defense groups are not supported, whatever they say. We cannot repeat or open a space for such a painful chapter in the country”, said the Minister of Agriculture, Cecilia López, before the Fifth Commission of the Senate.
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López specified that to address these cases it is necessary to differentiate the claims of peoples such as the indigenous –which have alluded to a historical debt and a “recovery” of what was theirs–, of the criminal actions that have also arisen in order to seize the property of others.
“Hopefully when the government begins to show results, which it will be now, that will show the political will of the government to distribute, to legalize, to carry out a rural reform. That is the best incentive for these pressures on the land, especially those of the occupation, to lower their pressure”, assured the Minister of Agriculture.
For his part, in a press conference offered following the debate on political control in Congress, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, also rejected that these types of initiatives are being developed and emphasized that “there is no possibility” that they can materialize “These fears of re-organizing self-defense forces to exercise justice into their own hands.”
“We are preparing an instruction for the members of the force on the procedure to follow: If the invasion exceeds 48 hours, the issue becomes treatment of the criminal regime. In these cases, the National Police would not try to expel the invader or the occupants of the farm, but would instead proceed to capture them,” said General Sanabria.
