Police evict 5000 squatters from northwest Colombia farmland

[Judi Lynn]

Police evict 5000 squatters from northwest Colombia farmland
Sunday, 08 May 2011 12:33
Adriaan Alsema

Anti-riot police have begun removing more than 5,000 homeless farm workers who had been squatting farmland in the northeast Colombian Urabá region since Monday.

According to the authorities, 250 members of an anti-riot police squad have been deployed in the operation and are using teargas to push the squatters off roads and private lots in the municipalities of Chigorodo, Carepa and Apartado, all located along the road connecting Medellin with Turbo.

~snip~
Carmen Palencia, director of the NGO Victims Association for the Restitution of assets and land in Uraba, told Associated Press that the squatters demand the return of land stolen from them by paramilitary forces over the years. Palencia denied that the farmers are occupying farmland, but are on public territory. "This is a social problem that has to do with housing shortage. The people have no homes," she said.

According to the NGO, some 50,000 hectares of land in the banana growing region are still in the hands of those who illegally acquired the land through forced displacement by paramilitary groups in the 1990s and 2000s.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/16098-police-evict-5000-squatters-from-northwest-colombia-farmland.html

[roody]

1. They are not squatters. They want their land back.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Exacly right. Everyone knows their land was stolen from them. Everyone. No mystery.

Damned sad that now the Colombian government-fearing remaining journalists describe them as "squatters." Dirty, dirty business.