Through their Twitter accounts, representative Katherine Miranda and President Gustavo Petro have discussed the non-approval of the article of the National Development Plan (PND) 2023 that sought the rapid purchase of land that she had publicly described as a form of “express expropriation”. The mess began after the president publicly singled her out during the handover of land in Aguachica, Cesar, last week.
Context: The president stated that one of the difficulties that the government has had in implementing its promise to deliver land is due to the fact that the article of the PND approved in 2023 that sought to allow the rapid purchase of land that was unproductive was not approved. “Mrs. Katherine Miranda hid the article so that it would not be debated in Congress,” she said.
Miranda defended himself by saying that the accusation was false and that even the article was denied by the government itself because it was never formally presented to Congress. For his part, Gerardo Vega, former director of the National Land Agency and author of the article, says that it was presented and that it was “blended” so that it could not be debated.
More involved in the crash: The former Minister of Agriculture, Cecilia López came out in defense of Miranda and stated that her resignation from the ministry was precisely because “they tried to impose that article on the PND.” “The president withdrew it so that I could stay and in exchange I designed and included the art. 61 of the PND that legally expedites the purchase of land,” she said on her Twitter account. Former Finance Minister Ocampo supported López’s version.
The “not debated” article: The article that the president insists he has included for debate and that Miranda denies is one titled “Sale of property for reasons of public utility with prior compensation.” It was an article in which the National Land Agency (ANT) was judge and party in the decision of at what price and from whom to buy a property. The rule establishes that the ANT could negotiate with the owner but that if a purchase agreement was not reached, it could immediately declare the property as of “social interest” and acquire it that way.
