At the end of 2016, ex-combatants of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) began to arrive in what is now the village of Tierra Grata, jurisdiction of the municipality of Manaure, department of Cesar.
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Today there are more than 300 families that live together on an 80-hectare piece of land, of which only 24 were acquired by the peace signatories through one of their cooperatives, the rest continues to be owned by Gonzalo Melo Bueno.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES IS IN PROCESS
“Right now we have a discussion with the ANT (National Land Agency) because Mr. Gonzalo’s farm has 80 hectares, he sold our 24 hectares to the cooperative for us to formulate the citadel of peace project for 150 homeowners,” Gilberto Giraldo explained to EL PILÓN in the middle of a tour of the old space for training and reincorporation.
“We bought, each one put $1,000,000 and then we began to design the citadel, it was not easy, the Universidad del Atlántico helped us, they gave us the project that has an approximate value of $400 million,” added Gilberto, known in the war as ‘Aldemar’.
Of the 150 homes, the signatories have built around 40 units with their own hands, 8 of them are already inhabited, the rest are in gray works because not everyone has enough resources to buy the raw material.
THE HARDWARE STORE
However, 92 reincorporated associated and created a hardware store that is registered with the Chamber of Commerce of Valledupar and with which today they earn resources for economic support and acquire part of the materials for the construction of their homes.
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This materials company also sells to citizens of the surrounding towns, for which there will be a headquarters in the El Mirador sector, jurisdiction of the municipality of La Paz.
One of the reasons for the transfer is that the access road to Tierra Grata is not in the best condition, which makes it difficult for buyers from outside the community to move around.
CONDITIONS OF THE HOUSES THAT THE GOVERNMENT MADE
Giraldo commented that it will be 7 years since they arrived in Tierra Grata and assured that: “It has not been possible for the Government of Cesar, nor the neighboring municipalities, to give us the title to that land.”
The man added that they hope that with the government of Gustavo Petro and the new administrations cEach signatory of the Peace Agreement “He may have property over the little house he is building and over his lot.”
For his part, Wilman Aldana, also a former guerrilla, lamented: “We live in overcrowded conditions, in crematorium ovens and without public services.” According to the reinstated, in recent years “There was no political will to implement the Agreement, the idea was to tear it to shreds.”
PONDORES CASE
In December 2022, the National Land Agency, ANT, delivered 188 hectares to signatories of the 2016 Peace Agreement located in the rural area of Fonseca, a municipality in the south of the department of La Guajira.
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This is the San Luis Farm, a property where those reincorporated from the former ‘Pondores’ Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation have their productive projects.
By Andrea Guerra Peña / THE PYLON.
@andreaguerraperiodista