Officials complicit in massive land theft: Colombian govt

[Judi Lynn]

Officials complicit in massive land theft: Colombian govt
Monday, 17 October 2011 09:34
Travis Mannon

Colombian officials were complicit in allowing illegal armed groups, landowners, and private companies to steal about 100,000 acres of land, displacing its previous occupants, according to a government report.

~snip~
According to the investigation, officials from Incoder, the Notary and the Registry, as well as the mayors of the region were all complicit in the violation of protection standards of land for forced displacement, the failure to ban the sale of land subject to land reform, and frauds in the transfer process of property belonging to the National Land Fund.

"The State has already mapped out the actions to remedy these irregularities," a report from the investigation said. "The problem has already been diagnosed, and we already have begun to implement various administrative, judicial, disciplinary and criminal procedures to reverse this situation in the Montes de Maria. Starting today, there will be constant announcements of resolved cases, reclaimed land, corrected errors, prosecution of those responsible and the restoration of rights to those affected."

~snip~
In early September, Congressman Ivan Cepeda took advantage of a house debate on land restitution to call for an investigation into ex-President Alvaro Uribe’s role in land sales.

Cepeda denounced Uribe for “influence peddling” over his rulings in the cases of allocating 185,329 acres of land to 25 companies in the Montes de Maria mountains.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/19717-colombian-govt-complicit-in-100000-acres-stolen-from-displaced-report.html

http://blogs.reuters.com.nyud.net:8090/frontrow/files//usr/local/

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe (R) receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
from U.S. President George W. Bush during a ceremony in the East Room of the
White House in Washington, January 13, 2009. The award is the highest civilian
honour that is given in the United States. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)