In the framework of the health emergency decreed by the national government, this Thursday, the director general of the Victims Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, together with the deputy director general and the five missionary directors, met with the delegates of the Departmental Table of Effective Participation of Victims of Antioquia, to address the challenges of care and reparation in times of pandemic.
The director general of the Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, reiterated that the entity, in this period of health emergency, has delivered more than 62.000 administrative indemnities throughout the country, of which 11.525 have benefited victims in Antioquia, for a value that exceeds the $100.960 million pesos.
Rodríguez added that one of the Unit’s goals is to bankarize the victims, for which Banco Agrario has been working. “In this emergency period, we have managed to bank around 18.000 victims, to facilitate their payments, and we guarantee that money orders will be available until August 31 for victims who will not be able to collect in the coming days”, he said.
“It has not been easy to enter this new stage of virtuality, but we are looking for new attention mechanisms throughout the country. We wanted to reopen service points in municipalities that did not have COVID-19, but cases appear and we must stop this process”, he added.
In this department, between March and June, the Unit has attended a total of 690.494 requests through non-contact channels.
The official also indicated that the Unit has provided 15.621 food aid to the victim population throughout the country, which does not receive any type of financial aid from state programs such as Families or Youth in Action. “We take this measure in order to overcome the effects of the mandatory isolation due to the current pandemic”, he stressed.
Finally, Rodríguez announced that through the mechanism of concurrence with the departments, “the Participation tables may request the resources to hold a plenary session for two days, to obtain the approval of the Territorial Action Plan”.
The delegates of the Antioquia Victims’ Table expressed their concerns to the entity’s missionary directors. Luis Alberto Palacios, delegate for the disability approach, stated: “Virtual active participation has been difficult and we would like more support in that regard, and on the other hand, check letters have arrived with different names that cannot be cashed by the victims”.
The representative Pilar Pulido asked to review the aid to victims in the municipality of Itagüí and the route of priority compensation, “especially in this time of emergency in which there are so many victims in need.”
Byrleida Ballesteros, delegate in Apartadó, highlighted the food aid that the Unit is targeting to survivors in vulnerable situations in the Antioquia Urabá and raised her concern for the victims who are suffering the effects of the pandemic.
“There are people who invested the resources of their compensation in small productive projects and have suffered in the pandemic, the economic restoration of the victims is required with programs and projects that improve quality of life and that are permanent, to end the assistance”, the delegate expressed.
Luis Emilio Muñoz, from Amagá municipality, asked for more assistance with humanitarian aid to the victims in this region, since they have been greatly affected by the suspension of mining.
Martha Ligia Pulgarín, requested the review of the service capacity in the west of the department, and proposed the “creation of another link point for the municipalities near Santa Fe de Antioquia”.
For her part, the unit’s deputy director general, Lorena Mesa, gave the victims’ delegates peace of mind regarding the extension of Law 1448. “The Constitutional Court has already defined the extension of the Victims Law, and the Unit is supporting the Government’s project to comply with what has been ordered to Congress in this regard”.
Inter-institutional Management
Aura Helena Acevedo, director of Inter-institutional Management, indicated that the Unit has been accompanying the participation tables throughout the country so that they can effectively influence plans, programs and pprojects of the territorial entities, so that the victims are benefited from all the actions focused on territory.
“We will continue supporting victims despite COVID-19 and we are committed to finding solutions to their needs. In this sense, we will carry out, as you are requesting, a second training for the ombudsmen in the territory, to advance effectively in the care of the survivors of the conflict”Acevedo pointed out.
In the framework of the budget harmonization exercises for the 2020 period, the Unit sent a letter to the territorial entities to make the adjustments they deemed necessary to their Territorial Action Plans (PAT) for the implementation of the victims policy, with in order to secure the necessary financial resources, in order to attend to the vulnerable victim population, in the current state of emergency.
Social and Humanitarian Management
The director of Social and Humanitarian Management of the Unit, Héctor Gabriel Camelo, specified that, in relation to the turns of humanitarian attention, “we have a deficiency measurement model to deliver this support, to specific homes with precarious conditions so that the Unity enter with your humanitarian action”.
During the COVID-19 emergency, in the department of Antioquia the entity has delivered 46,562 money orders worth $ 29.190.427.000, to serve victims of forced displacement with deficiencies in food and accommodation components, in order to contribute to guarantee the vital minimum of the homes that need it most.
Repair
In turn, the director of Reparation, Enrique Ardila, reiterated that the Unit continues to meet its schedule of delivering letters of compensation. “In the department of Antioquia we have delivered more than 46.500 money orders worth close to 30.000 million pesos”.
“Deliveries of compensation letters are being carried out in the estimated times, personally to the victim, the check letter is being delivered to them, through the courier company 4-72, complying with all care measures” Ardila explained.
“In the Directorate of Reparation we also continue advancing the agreements with the groups that have a reparation process, and we continue with the survey of profiles of the returned or relocated families that will be beneficiaries of special family support schemes”, added the director.
Regarding the extension of the Law, the director stated that “there will have to be a guaranteed budget from the Government to continue with the reparation processes in the new term”.
Regarding the Farc’s assets, he said that “those monies will only be destined for the implementation of collective reparation actions and measures”.
Ardila undertook with the delegates to review those specific cases or pending questions, in the course of the next week, so as not to leave any concern unanswered.
For her part, Luz Patricia Correa, director of Ethnic Affairs of the Unit, ratified the commitments with the collective subjects of reparation, whose rights derive from the law decrees.
Registry
Emilio Alberto Hernández, director of Registration and Information Management, referred to the entity’s progress in including victims in the RUV and the processing of news during the health emergency. “In this time of pandemic, the history of news increased, we have included 56,559 victims (individual and mass type), in the department of Antioquia, 7,469 people”.
The territorial director of the Victims Unit in Antioquia, Wilson Córdoba Mena, said that the meeting was very positive in which the representatives of the victims of the department were able to clear up concerns regarding issues of comprehensive reparation to the population. Additionally, she pointed out that this is a work issue articulated between the representatives of the victims and the entity in which there must be a permanent closeness and dialogue such as the one held today.
The round of dialogue with the Table of participation of Victims of Antioquia lasted about five hours. The days that take place over two days include the tables of Effective Participation of the 32 departments and that of the Capital District.
(End/LMY-SMC)
