April 13, 2023
Petro vs Duque
Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused his predecessor, former President Iván Duque (2018-2022), of “tearing to shreds” the peace agreement signed by the government of Juan Manuel Santos with the former FARC-EP guerrillas, by not fulfilling the commitments made by the state with former combatants.
During his participation in the National Council for Peace, Reconciliation and Coexistence, Petro said that Duque had been the head of state who had the longest time in the Executive to enforce the agreements. In total, he commented, the former president was in charge for four of the seven years of the pact since it was signed in 2016.
“How many hectares did Duque buy to comply with the first point of the agreement?” questioned Petro, who added that Duque barely complied with “0.3% of the agreement” during his government.
“What did Duque do then? He shredded the peace agreement,” the president finished off, which generated an immediate reaction from his predecessor.
Petro added that in order to comply with point one of the peace agreement, which has to do with the “Integral Rural Reform” and which includes the purchase of land to reduce the gaps between the countryside and the city, his government and the next one, at least until 2031, have to buy three million hectares and hand them over to the peasantry.
The Colombian president stated that Duque only formalized during his term the delivery of titles to 1.3 million hectares of land for people who were already in place, a figure that cannot be counted as part of point one of the agreement, which requires the purchase of another three million hectares.
What are the official figures?
According to Colombia’s National Land Agency, the figures for land titling must be separated from those for purchases because they are different items. In the first case, it is the formalization of land tenure, while in the second case, it implies the transaction to acquire it.
In that sense, the institution clarified that in the Duque Government, figures in that matter were duplicated because 709,936 titled hectares were included in the Land Fund, as if they had been purchased.
“In reality, in the 4 years of the Government of Iván Duque, only 13,706 hectares were purchased and in seven months of the Government of President Gustavo Petro, 7,028 hectares have been purchased,” the institution detailed.
The agency adds that during Petro’s administration more than one million hectares have been formalized in seven months; while in Duque’s four years, a total of 1.3 million hectares were titled.
In addition, according to the institution, in Petro’s seven months, four Peasant Reserve Zones have been constituted, corresponding to 396,560 hectares; while in Duque’s administration “zero (0) zones were approved, with zero (0) hectares”.
Duque’s opinion
Meanwhile, former President Duque assured that his administration can respond “to lies and fallacies”, “with facts and accurate data”. However, the clarifications of the also businessman leave more doubts than lights in front of the controversy.
According to the former president, during his administration, “1.7 million hectares of land were transferred to the Land Fund, in more than 14,000 properties”.
“Some confuse properties with hectares intentionally or due to lack of rigor”, commented Duque, citing data from the Land Agency, figures that the same institution explained how they should be differentiated and cited.
Duque also posted on Twitter some graphs and a list of his land achievements. However, none of them talk about purchases.
“The facts and figures, once again, disprove the fallacies. The advances in land titling and properties in the Land Fund are evident,” said the former Colombian president.
Duque’s administration was accused by former FARC-EP combatants themselves of violating the peace agreements signed in 2016 and of provoking the emergence of the so-called dissidents of that armed group, who justified their return to arms due to non-compliance with the treaty and fear of being killed. Among the signatories who returned to war is guerrilla leader Iván Márquez.
According to data from Colombia’s Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), since the agreements were signed in 2016 between the government and the FARC-EP, 354 demobilized ex-guerrillas have been killed, the vast majority of them during the Duque administration.