Colombia Sets Up Ambitious Plan For Reparations to Victims and Displaced

One of the most under-reported effects of Colombia's violence is the millions of internal refugees. Many of the displaced fled due to violence or for opposing one of the armed parties. Many are small landowners or tenant farmers forced off their land by paramilitary "scorched earth" policies - often in complicity with the military. In addition, vast tracts of land have been bought with drug money, and nouveau landowners have done a reverse "agrarian reform" ejecting tenants forcibly. Guerilla policies of drafting young teens and taxing rural residents has also forced people out.

The government of Colombia recently passed a decree of reparations which will indemnify 200,000 victims of violence and 2.2 million displaced people. It is estimated the program will cost around 4 billion dollars, take about 10 years to implement, and will begin later on this year.

The decree covers all victims of illegal "armed groups" irrespective of ideology.
While it looks like the government expects part of the funding to come from armed parties themselves, it is providing the direct funding to get it up and running.

The actual program was designed with assistance from the government of Spain, the Interamerican Human Rights offices, and other organizations. Besides material reparations, the measure also looks to provide rehabilitation and psychological assistance for the victims to assist their reintegration into society.

This looks like quite an undertaking for the Colombian government, involving an ambitious plan involving a huge number of people. Regardless of what you think, it seems to be a step in the right direction.

Colombia: FARC #2 KILLED, CHAVEZ CRIES,

Tirofijo's son in law gets his, a kilometer inside Ecuador.

Around 8 years ago, Raul Reyes was constantly on Colombian and International TV during the failed negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government, and was the public face of the FARC. Was a ruthless hardline communist trained in East Germany. As commander of the "Bloque Sur" he ordered thousands of kidnapings, hundreds of extra-judicial executions.

He was up to his neck in responsibility for the crimes of FARC, not only from the command side, but because he handled the groups finances>.
And he was also the pervert who kidnapped 9 year girls to become part of his harem.
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Chavez comments & actions are inflamatory, revealing, and crazy:

i. A minute of silence for Reyes
ii. Admitted he met 3 times with Reyes, even before president.
iii. Said it was "tribute" to "Raul Reyes a real revolutionary"
iv. says the killing was "not in combat", a "cowardly murder" "coldly planned"
v. Called Colombia a "terrorist state", says Uribe is the "criminal", a "liar" a "terrorist",

Correa meanwhile is the real "aggrieved party" since Ecuadorian sovereignity was violated. But information found on Reyes laptop allegedly shows that Reyes was meeting with Ecuadors government. Correa was negotiating with FARC to recognize them as combatants in order to get involved in hostage negotiations, to probably gain some leverage over Colombia. Apparently Correa was willing to pull more anti-FARC elements in police and military from border. Ecuador's president could come across really, really bad. In the process justifying Uribe not notifiying him.

Tip Of The Hat to
Boz