Colombia: Zidres Law promotes land grabbing, affects communal territories
▻http://www.farmlandgrab.org/25932
On 3 February, President Santos signed the Zones of Rural, Economic and Social Interest Law (Zidres in Spanish) in the central-eastern department of Casanare. He could not have chosen a more defiant location. In this highland region (Altillanura), domestic and foreign companies see the potential for securing long-term investments to accumulate thousands of hectares of land. Indeed, congresspeople, academics and farmers have denounced the shortcuts used by these companies to acquire land, including vacant lands that exceed the limit established by the 1994 Law of Family Agricultural Units (Law 160). This scandal even resulted in the resignation of the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Carlos Urrutia. Urrutia had signed legal documents permitting the creation of fictitious companies that were listed as owners of properties, which in fact all belonged to the same company.
President Santos seemed to be saying that, through this law, those who seek justice in cases of land grabbing would ultimately get their revenge. However, the Zidres Law, which critics call the “Urrutia Law”, actually serves the interest of land grabbers [helping them access lands] in areas where there is little infrastructure, where the land needs a large investment in order to be productive, and where investors must demonstrate that they possess a large amount of capital. Most frightening are the acquisitions already made by companies like Cargill, Riopaila Castilla and Poligrow, in complete disregard for the law.
