2023 closes with positive progress in the management of the Land Restitution Unit in Cesar and La Guajira, on the collective route, a process aimed at reestablishing the territorial rights of Wayuu communities and Afro-descendant Community Councils of both departments.
Of the seven demands for restitution of territorial rights presented for organized communities, five are in the department of La Guajira and the remaining two in Cesar, with which the entity hopes to restitute more than 2,700 hectares.
In the department of Cesar, the Land Restitution Unit ends the year with the filing of two requests for restitution of territorial rights. These processes, which are part of the goal of the Ethnic Affairs Directorate, focus on actions to benefit 224 families of the Roberto Carvajal Medina Community Council, located in the Saloa district, municipality of Chimichagua, an organization that expects the return of 297 hectares.
Likewise, there is a restitution process with the Community Council of Black Communities La Sierra, El Cruce and La Estación (Conesice) with which it is expected to restore the territorial rights of 414 families from Chiriguaná, Cesar, who claim 440 hectares taken by the armed conflict.
The department of La Guajira is the one that presents the greatest progress in relation to the demands filed on the collective route by the URT in 2023. The effectiveness in management is due to the prioritization that the territorial management, headed by Astrid Navarro, assigned to claim cases in Guajiro territory.
Among the Wayuu indigenous communities of La Guajira that demand restitution of territorial rights are the reservations of Cerrodeo (Barrancas), Cuatro de Noviembre (Albania) and the Santa Rosa de Majayura reservation (Maicao), and together they add up to 1,947 hectares which, being Returned to their original owners, they will benefit nearly 1,600 families.
Similarly, in the Fonseca municipality, the Land Restitution Unit carries out important work that impacts the organized communities of the Afro councils, José Manjarrés Ariza, located in the township of Potrerito and Blas Rosado Urbay, in the known sector. like Sabaneta. In these two legal processes, the URT will manage the restitution of more than 15 hectares, in addition to the reestablishment of territorial, social, cultural, economic and symbolic rights for 420 families who systematically suffered the effects of the violence of the armed conflict.
“We continue to respond to the ethnic communities of La Guajira, as it is one of President Petro’s main commitments regarding land restitution, which gave us the opportunity to work hand in hand with the organized communities to manage five demands in favor of the collective claimants of the Wayúu reservations and the Afro-descendant councils,” indicated Astrid Navarro Rodríguez, territorial director of the URT in Cesar and La Guajira.
