As of this agreement, restitution claimants in these departments will be able to access properties declared extinct. The articulation between the Special Assets Society (SAE) and the Land Restitution Unit (URT) will also allow compensation for second occupants recognized in failures.
The Caribbean regional Special Assets Society (SAE) and the Land Restitution Unit (URT), headed by its territorial directors of Bolívar, Magdalena and Cesar-La Guajira, held a meeting in Barranquilla with the objective of articulating actions for the compliance with court orders in favor of victims of the armed conflict, and for compensation to second occupants who benefited from the sentence. To this end, at said meeting, offers of rural properties for transfers were presented based on Law 1708 of 2014.
The agreement between both entities is based on what is established in the rules for the extinction of ownership, according to Decree Law 1623 of 2023, which allows the SAE to carry out transfers of properties to the Unit for compliance with the post-failure stage of the restitution of lands in the so-called individual route.
In that sense, the SAE regional office in the Caribbean presented 14 properties ready for transfers for the department of Cesar, which are distributed as follows: six are in the rural area of the municipality of Valledupar: six in the rural area of Pelaya; one in Agustín Codazzi and one in Becerril.
Likewise, it was agreed that the URT will manage, together with the claimants, the material delivery of unopposed properties linked to processes that do not have a declaration of judgment, in the development of the judicial stage.
“Based on this agreement with the Special Assets Company, the land restitution process can advance in relation to material deliveries, even before the sentence is issued. Property that can be used by the complaining victims without affecting the process before transitional justice,” declared Astrid Navarro Rodríguez, territorial director of the URT Cesar-La Guajira.
Navarro added that another advantage is the possibility of using properties defunct by the SAE for leases or bailouts for victims in the process of land restitution during the administrative stage. Finally, the territorial director indicated that, to comply with the agreement, the Cesar-La Guajira territorial authority will carry out review work with the professionals of the Land Restitution Fund Group to file specific requests for properties.
