Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
How to steal land the size of a small country and get away with it Part II
by Adriaan Alsema October 10, 2018
Colombia’s palm oil sector has been among the main beneficiaries of the mass dispossession of land during the country’s armed conflict. Now their former federation chief is in charge of land restitution.
President Ivan Duque reportedly appointed former Fedepalma director Andres Augusto Castro as chief of the Land Restitution Unit, the government agency in charge of returning land to farmers who say their plots were illegally dispossessed.
According to the National Center for Historical Memory, victims who were displaced have requested the restitution of more than 3 million acres of land, an area the size of Belgium, they say was dispossessed by palm oil and banana companies, drug traffickers, guerrillas and ranchers.
Sell me your land or I will buy it off your widow.
Colombian proverb
When the son of former Bogota Mayor Jaime Castro was the chief of Fedepalma, multiple businessmen he represented were jailed for aligning with death squads and the military to displace farmers and steal their land.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/how-to-steal-land-the-size-of-a-small-country-and-get-away-with-it-part-ii/
