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### Viewing cable 07BOGOTA32, STRUGGLE OVER LAND CONTINUES TO FUEL COLOMBIAN

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
07BOGOTA32 | 2007-01-04 18:47 | 2011-04-03 12:30 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Bogota
Appears in these articles: http://www.elespectador.com/wikileaks

`

    VZCZCXYZ0007
    RR RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHBO #0032/01 0041847
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    R 041847Z JAN 07
    FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1687
    INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 7334
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 8552
    RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JAN LIMA 4620
    RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA 9860
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 5277
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
    RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 000032

    SIPDIS

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2017
    TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL ECON CO
    SUBJECT: STRUGGLE OVER LAND CONTINUES TO FUEL COLOMBIAN
    CONFLICT

    REF: BOGOTA 8793

    Classified By: Political Counselor John S. Creamer.
    Reason: 1.4 (b,d)

    -------
    Summary
    -------

    ¶1.  (U)  Rural land development is a source of conflict in
    Colombia; repeated land reform efforts have been
    unsuccessful.  A proposed new law aimed at facilitating rural
    development and promoting land distribution has led to
    complaints by human rights groups that it could legalize
    illegal land seizures by paramilitary and other illegal armed
    groups.  Some studies estimate that paramilitary and
    narcotics traffickers may control at least 10 per cent of
    Colombia's land. End Summary

    --------------------------
    Centuries of Land Conflict
    --------------------------

    ¶2.  (U)  Armed conflict and land disputes are historically
    intertwined in Colombia.  Jesuit academic Father Fernan
    Gonzalez explains that Colombia did not follow the common
    latifundia pattern in which enormous colonial land grants
    were later distributed to peasants through agrarian reforms.
    Rather, Colombia's peasants colonized frontier areas and
    developed unclaimed land.  As their land acquired value,
    rural elites would use political power and violence to seize
    it.  This forced campesinos to move to more remote areas
    where the cycle would continue.  Gonzalez said two factors
    explain why this pattern has continued for decades:  large
    areas without strong state presence and the absence of
    serious agrarian reform that provided campesinos with clear
    land title.  Despite the increasingly urbanized nature of
    Colombia society, Gonzalez said the land issue remains key
    since almost 15 million Colombians continue to live in rural
    areas.

    ---------------
    Failed Policies
    ---------------

    ¶3.  (U)  Colombia's land reform efforts over the past forty
    years have had little success.  The Instituto Nacional
    Colombiano de la Reforma Agraria (INCORA) isthemost
    ambitious program to date.  INCORA's goal is to promote
    reform, largely through subsidizing the sale of land by
    wealthy landowners to cooperatives.  The cooperatives are
    supposed to develop the land and increase productivity.  The
    World Bank and USAID criticize the program because: (1)
    projects are generally chosen without legally required
    technical and economic analyses, (2) the program has not
    implemented an efficient process for developing resettlement
    projects, (3) the program distorts land values because owners
    factor the subsidy into their asking price, and (4) if
    cooperatives cannot productively use land, legal restrictions
    placed on program beneficiaries make it very difficult for
    them to resell it.

    ------------------------------------
    A New Proposal with Problems
    ------------------------------------

    ¶4.  (C)  The GOC is considering a new, comprehensive, rural
    development law.  Luis Orozco, deputy director for social
    issues of Colombia's land titling agency, the Instituto
    Colombiano de Desarrollo Rural ("INCODER"), told us the bill
    would harmonize a large number of existing laws, accelerate
    distribution of land to disadvantaged groups, and encourage
    productive land use.  He said it would also help integrate
    Colombia's rural economy into the global economy.  The
    proposal passed two Senate readings in 2006. Two House
    readings, which are not expected until mid-2007, are required
    before it would become law.

    ¶5.  (C)  The bill would also increase INCODER's power at
    INCORA's expense by giving it a monopoly on developing,
    approving, and implementing resettlement projects.  INCODER
    contends these enhanced powers would enable it to more
    effectively promote rural development.  Critics argue this is
    politically problematic, because INCODER is widely accused of

    corruption.  Its officials are reportedly involved in
    land-for-votes schemes, and the media recently linked Luis
    Ortiz, INCODER's former director, to paramilitaries.  Human
    rights groups and many rural residents claim the organization
    works with paramilitaries to facilitate land seizures, but we
    cannot substantiate or disprove these charges.  Ministry of
    Agriculture counselor Lorena Garnica, who helped draft the
    bill, told us it would reduce the possibility of corruption
    by making INCODER more transparent and clarifying its
    responsibilities.

    ¶6.  (C)  The bill's most controversial provision, which would
    have made it easier to acquire legal ownership through
    "adverse possession," was deleted in the Senate after heated
    debate.  Orozco, Garnica, and bill sponsor Senator Manuel
    Guillermo Mora told us the provision's purpose was to help
    disadvantaged groups obtain title to land they already
    occupy.  In contrast, the left wing Polo Democratico party
    and human rights groups such as the Colombian Commission of
    Jurists claimed the provision would help paramilitaries
    legalize land seizures and forced "purchases" from indigenous
    and Afro-Colombian groups.  Garnica said opposition to the
    provision was politically motivated.  She explained that
    existing law already permits adverse possession in the same
    circumstances, and that land reserves for indigenous and
    Afro-Colombian groups are constitutionally protected from
    adverse possession.  Moreover, indigenous and Afro-Colombian
    lands cannot legally be sold.  Still, the Polo party was
    successful in having the provision dropped during the second
    Senate reading.

    ¶7.  (C)  Other provisions of the bill were also removed.  For
    example, it was supposed to facilitate INCODER's capacity to
    fast-track reallocation of confiscated narco-properties to
    campesinos.  While the government can already do this, the
    authority is not extensively used because the current law is
    complex, time consuming, and makes government officials
    personally liable if courts later overturn confiscations.
    The bill would have made confiscation and reallocation more
    efficient.  This provision was stricken by the Senate,
    apparently at the request of INCODER, to minimize potential
    liability for itself and employees.

    ----------------------------------
    Illegal Armed Groups and Narcotics
    ----------------------------------

    ¶8.  (U)  The World Bank reported that Colombia's land
    inequality sharply increased in the past 20 years.  This is
    mainly due to large narco-purchases and forced "sales" to
    illegal armed groups.  A 2005 analysis by the UNDP reports
    that there are 4 to 5 million hectares of "narco-landholding"
    spread throughout Colombia that could be subject to
    confiscation.  This constitutes between 4 and 5 per cent of
    Colombia's total land area.  There has been widespread
    criticism that the government has confiscated only a minute
    fraction of the land it could:  over the past fifteen years,
    less than 150,000 hectares have been seized by the government
    and virtually none sold.

    ¶9.  (C)  Paramilitary "purchases" are significant, especially
    in the rural, north coast region.  Paramilitary leader Jorge
    40's recently confiscated computer reportedly contains
    information on "purchases" of between 2.5 and 6 million
    hectares in the region (reftel).  Other paramilitary leaders
    have acquired land on the Pacific Coast. There are claims
    that paramilitaries are displacing Afro-Colombian communities
    to develop lucrative palm oil plantations.  The USG checks
    all recipients of assistance carefully to ensure that no USG
    funding directly or indirectly assists those who
    illegitimately acquired land.  Assistance has been refused to
    some palm oil farmers on these grounds.

    ¶10.  (U)  In addition to "purchased" land, paramilitaries,
    drug lords, and the FARC all repeat the centuries old pattern
    of seizing land from campesinos or taking control of it and
    forcingcampesinos to work for them.  Between two and three
    million peasants are estimated to have been violently
    displaced by illicit armed groups seeking to control
    territory and/or narco-cultivation in the past decade.  This
    "counter agrarian reform," as political scientist Francisco
    Leal Buitrago describes it, has largely taken place in rural
    areas where state presence is weak and land title ambiguous.
    FARC seizures have generally been concentrated in the south

    and east of the country.

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    Comment
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    ¶11.  (U)  Any redistribution of land held by drug lords or
    narco-terrorists is complicated by poorly defined land title
    and fear of retribution.  Colombia's rural areas lack good
    cadastral surveys.  Tradition establishes boundaries, and
    rural residents "know" which family owns what land.  Without
    adequate plats defining land boundaries, title is ambiguous
    and the perception of land inequality is reinforced.
    Returning illicitly acquired land to original owners is
    difficult, since they never had clear legal title.
    Additionally, campesinos fear that if they accept land from
    the government, then the previous "owners" will seek revenge
    and try to retake the land. Lastly, failure to clearly
    demarcate land held by indigenous and Afro-Colombian
    communities undermines their ability to enforce the legal
    protections afforded them by the Constitution.  End Comment
    WOOD

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