Former local Red Cross chief linked to paramilitary groups [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Former local Red Cross chief linked to paramilitary groups
Sep 15, 2014 posted by Christoffer Frendesen

A former local Red Cross head from the north of Colombia appears in court records where hundreds of hectares have been deprived by paramilitary forces. The now-Red Cross volunteer denies accusations.

Elkin Bechara, former head of Red Cross in northern Caribbean state Cordoba, owns 16 hectares of lands, which originally was stolen from peasants by now defunct paramilitary group United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), according to newspaper El Tiempo.

Bechara, who owns the land with his son Ricardo Velásquez Bechara, claims that the hectares were bona fide purchases.

“I’m willing to prove it to the authorities. Also I am going to sue the person who sold me the land and make his name public,” stated Bechara to El Tiempo.

The cases of stolen land surfaced in 2013, when a Santa Marta family in the Magdalena state, reported to the prosecutor general that AUC forced them to give up their land, which after a couple of transfer ended in Bechara’s name.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/former-local-red-cross-leader-connections-paramilitary-groups/#sthash.fzHguR7M.dpuf