A widow and her seven children, members of a family victim of the dispossession of their property of 262 hectares and 5,597 square meters, located in the rural area of Puerto Rico, Meta, will be compensated by the Land Restitution Unit (URT), according to contemplates a ruling issued by the Superior Court of Bogotá.
Since 1968, a married couple resided on the property and, later, in 1991 it was awarded to them by the then Incora, after having exploited it economically with crops of banana, corn, cassava and rice, in addition to raising pigs.
The violence worsened in the area, so much so that the head of the household died in strange circumstances, after receiving threats from alias “Adriano”, a guerrilla commander who had ordered the recruitment of the couple’s children. Furthermore, he had prohibited the family from continuing the economic exploitation of the property.
The year was 1992. After the tragic death of her husband and in the face of constant threats from the FARC guerrilla, the woman was forced to move to another municipality and sell the property for $15 million pesos. As time went by, the buyer of the property sold it to a company, which argued that it acquired the property legally and that it is not linked to groups outside the law or to acts of dispossession.
The territorial director of the URT in Meta, César Santoyo, indicated that thanks to Law 1448 of 2011, the victim family presented the request to the Unit, to exercise its judicial representation. Thus, the court was able to issue a ruling in favor of the claimants.
In the ruling issued by the Superior Court of Bogotá, the URT is ordered to apply compensation as a reparative measure to the dispossessed family: the widow will receive the equivalent of 50% of the property, and the children or heirs the remaining 50%. Meanwhile, the opponent demonstrated good faith free of guilt, because he acquired the property lawfully.
Source: Land Restitution Unit