“There are resources worth millions of pesos that remain untapped, all kinds of assets: luxury apartments, luxury houses, fields, money, jewelry, gems, gold, works of art (…). All this could be used for the benefit of society”, explained president Gustavos Petros.
Goods and resources seized from drug traffickers in Colombia will be allocated or used in the future to help the poorest and most vulnerable citizens, President Gustavo Petro has pledged.
“The instruction we have given is that these goods be put at the service of the people,” Mr. Petro said during a visit to the city of Villavicencio (center).
“There are resources worth millions of pesos that remain untapped, all kinds of assets: luxury apartments, luxury houses, fields, money, jewelry, gems, gold, works of art (…). All this could be used for the benefit of society,” he explained.
The new president, the first in Colombia’s history to belong to the left, wants to transform the institution in charge of managing and selling confiscated assets, the Special Resources Company (Sociedad de Activos Especiales, SAE).
Mr. Petros has repeatedly criticized SAE, whose reputation has been tarnished in recent years by “huge scandals of difference”, which led, as he pointed out, to the return of goods that had been seized in the hands of criminals, or to their exploitation for the benefit of specific political figures .
During his visit, the president proceeded to grant an area of ​​land, whose ownership had been “time-barred”, to accommodate 85 families who lost their homes due to heavy rains in the country in recent weeks.
Confiscated farmland is set to be rented “cheaply” to farmers to allow them to have “crop yields.” But lands may be granted for “housing construction, or the development of productive projects to encourage a new social economy,” according to Mr. Petros.
Colombia’s new president was elected on a promise to push for tax reform, which would favor the less privileged, as well as agrarian reform, which would include the redistribution of underutilized fertile land to boost agricultural production.
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