The former coordinator of the Territorial Technical Group at the Colombian Institute of Rural Development (Incoder) in Cesar, from 2003 to 2007, Carlos Eduardo Reyes Jiménez, presented details of his connection with paramilitary groups.
The revelations were made within the framework of a procedure before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), within the framework of the Gran Magdalena subcase of Case 08, which investigates crimes committed by the Public Force or by agents of the State, in association with paramilitaries or civilian third parties, during the armed conflict.
Reyes Jiménez also mentioned names of public servants and civil third parties, who took advantage of their position in Incoder to facilitate operations that promoted forced displacement, the legalization of land dispossession through purchases at ridiculous prices, the hoarding and reallocation of lands. through irregular procedures, in several municipalities of the Cesar mining corridor and other surrounding municipalities.
He explained that these illegal operations were committed in alliance and in response to the interests of the ‘Mártires del Cacique de Upar’ and ‘Juan Andrés Álvarez Pastrana’ fronts, of the Northern Block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), as well as to satisfy the interests of private economic actors in the region.
Reyes explained to the magistrates how the legal mechanisms worked to displace and dispossess peasants of their land, and how these properties were later legalized and placed in the name of front men of the AUC or third-party civilians related to these groups.
These illegal actions facilitated the economic exploitation of the properties, especially in the mining, palm oil and livestock sectors. Reyes even specified how this situation led to a kind of “agrarian counter-reform” that formalized the grabbing of land and its exploitation at the cost of dispossession in the region.
What was said by Reyes Jiménez is added to what was stated by four other former members of the Northern Block of the AUC, who were heard as witnesses.
For the JEP, these statements are fundamental to understanding the complexity of the criminal networks that deeply affected the rural communities in the north of the country, specifically in the Greater Magdalena subregion.
The information collected by the magistracy will allow it to analyze, identify and clarify the patterns of macrocriminality carried out in this region of the country against landowners in at least 11 properties; and demonstrate how forced displacement and land dispossession have a direct relationship with criminal networks formed from alliances and connivance between members of the public force, State agents, third-party civilians and paramilitaries.
Likewise, the information provided by Reyes about his actions prompts the call from members of the Public Force and third-party civilians to voluntarily submit a version to the JEP for these same events.
Reyes Jiménez still has open investigations in the ordinary justice system, and has already served a 10-year prison sentence for forced displacement, among other crimes.
The procedure was carried out in a confidential manner and was presided over by Judge Óscar Parra Vera, rapporteur of the Gran Magdalena subcase, of Case 08.
The reporting office invited the Legal Situations Definition Chamber to the proceedings, which is currently processing the request for Reyes to be submitted to the JEP as an agent of the State not a member of the Public Force.
