Today, when the Salado massacre is 19 years old, the inhabitants of this region of country remember how 450 paramilitaries killed 60 people in a state of defenselessness. Also, how, for two days, the bodies of their friends and relatives were watered by the whole town, because the members of the illegal group denied the possibility of watching and burying their loved ones, and how fear did not allow them to dismiss to the victims according to traditions.
When the massacre is 19 years old, the Victims’ Unit remembers the way in which it has continued to accompany the reparation processes of these people affected by violence.
Regarding individual reparation:
- Historically, 4,951 people have been administratively compensated for a value close to 27,300 million pesos.
- In 2018, 439 people were compensated for a value close to 2,900 million pesos, of which 103 people were compensated in December for a value close to 956 million pesos.
- In Judicial Compensation – Victim Reparation Fund:
- The judicial compensation for El Salado massacre has been granted in compliance with the sentence pronounced by Judge Lester María González Romero, of the Sala de Bogotá, against Salvatore Mancuso and refers mainly to victims of El Salado massacre they are located in Bolivar department.
- There are 846 judicial compensations, amounting in total to 12,500 million pesos. It is important to indicate that El Salado township does not have an Agrarian Bank office where it is possible to place the transfers in favor of the resident victims there. Of these, 387 compensations worth close to $ 6,000 million pesos were granted through the administrative act 125 of the Victims’ Reparation Fund, of December 11, 2017 and 459 compensations worth close to $ 6,600 million pesos. recognized in resolution No. 7525 of December 12, 2018.
- Compensation by judicial sentence for El Salado massacre will be paid before the end of March of this year, for a total of $ 6,600 million, according to Ramón Rodríguez, director of Victims Unit. “The commitment is that in this first quarter we will pay $ 6.6 billion pesos to the victims of El Salado and we hope that by the end of March we will have all the resources already paid,” the official explained.
- Ramón Rodríguez reiterated that the monies for these obligations “are already in the bank and the order is missing so that they can be disbursed, because the Unit already has this budget and what we want is to be able to fulfill this commitment before the end of this 31st March”.
Regarding collective reparation:
- The total investment, since 2014, with the Subject of Collective Repair of El Salado has been close to $ 351 million pesos, distributed as follows: $ 15 million in 2014, $ 36 million in 2015, $ 241 in 2016 and $ 59 in 2017.
- Among the most representative actions that have been implemented are: the physical and human strengthening of the Community Action Boards; a productive project for the settlement of bovines; the effective allocation of teaching staff for the educational institution and training in community administration offered by UNDP.
- The Unit continued with the implementation of Reconstruction of Social Tissue “Entrelazando” strategy, with the development of 5 specific actions.
- Regarding the ruling T-718 of 2017, by which the Unit is ordered to “design a plan and schedule to convene and install a committee composed of the actors and entities whose effective participation of the actors in the identification of damages and measures of collective reparation, among other provisions… “, a proposal of psychosocial care work plan was defined for the group of women and a methodology was created for the identification of damage, which was socialized with the entity SISMA Woman and with the group of women.
- Among the actions carried out in the framework of El Salado reconstruction project, the following stand out: the improvement of El Carmen – El Salado road, maintenance of aqueduct infrastructure as well as the construction of the sewer system, construction of the House of Culture , implementation of productive projects focused on providing the community with work tools to exercise livestock, and delivery of musical implements to support the artistic group of young people.
- The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), for its part, carried out agricultural projects focused on the planting of corn and yams for approximately 300 families, of which 100 belonged to the community, and the rest to villages of the nearby communities.
It is important to note that the National Government, through the Ministry of Housing, City and Territory, made the delivery of 100 free homes to the community of El Salado.
In returns and relocations:
- In the municipality of Carmen de Bolívar, El Salado township, between the months of December 2017 and January 2018, 12 special family support schemes were delivered, in the modalities of bovine kit and store kit, which benefited households in processes of returns and relocations of said town.
- In the same municipality, including the village of El Salado and its trails and the Alta zone of Montes de María, the Families in their Land Program (FEST) has attended a total of 2,222 people.
