With the financial compensation they received as part of their comprehensive reparation, in simultaneous days in the municipalities of Ituango, Santa Fe de Antioquia, Remedios and La Ceja, 161 victims of armed conflict may improve their living conditions.
During the acts carried out by the Victims Unit, in coordination with the local mayors, the survivors were dignified with symbolic acts and oriented on the adequate investment of these public monies.
In La Ceja there were 75 people benefited, in Santa Fe de Antioquia 46 and in Ituango 20, as in Remedios.
These survivors are part of the 775 victims who, during the month of March, are being compensated in 9 days in Antioquia, with resources for 7,694 million pesos, in recognition of the damages caused by the victimizing acts they suffered in the middle of armed conflict: Homicides and forced disappearance of relatives, kidnappings, forced displacement, terrorist acts and sexual violence.
One of the victims benefited in Ituango is Carlos Fidel Posada, who recounted his drama: “They forced us to leave the path on the run because they said that the paramilitary groups were coming and we had to abandon crops and animals that we had on the farm.” At that time (year 2000), the aramilitary groups faced the FARC guerrilla in this area of northern Antioquia.
Thanks to the prioritization of being an older person, today he receives reparation compensation and already has plans to invest these resources well, after suffering the forced displacement: “With this money I am going to fix the house, I am going to change the roof and the kitchen. I am happy”.
The director of Victims Unit in Antioquia, Wilson Cordoba Mena, assured that “we know that these compensations cannot repair all the damage that the armed conflict caused in these people and their families, but we hope that, well invested, they contribute to improve their living conditions”.
To that end, the victims were guided by the professionals of Unit to allocate these resources to the purchase or improvement of housing, start or strengthening of productive projects, savings and higher education.
During the almost 8 years of implementation of Law 1448 of 2011, the Victims Unit has delivered economic compensation to 962,815 survivors of armed conflict in Colombia, with an investment of 5.95 billion pesos. Of these, 229,851 victims have already benefited from this measure in Antioquia.
(FIN/jcm/drr/cmc)
