Colombia’s government agreed to purchase 3 million hectares in arable land from large landowners for redistribution among victims of armed conflict.
President Gustavo Petro and the president of ranchers federation Fedegan, Jose Felix Lafaurie, formally signed the agreement on Saturday.
The land purchases would allow the government to implement agreements made with victims as part of a 2016 peace deal with the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC.
The agreement with the ranchers federation was negotiated by Agriculture Minister Cecilia Lopez.
The agriculture minister said on Twitter that the government would need approximately six years to purchase land for farmers whose properties were dispossessed during the armed conflict.
Lopez also said that authorities will make sure not to buy any land that is either infertile or acquired illegally.
The vast majority of the 9 million victims of Colombia’s armed conflict were forcibly displaced by illegal armed groups.
Tens of thousands of these victims aren’t able to return to their lands as they ended up in the hands of others through all kinds of rackets.
The acquisition of arable land and the seizure of illegally obtained lands should allow many of these victims to either go home or resume their way of life as farmers.
