Colombia: Police Fire Wounds One as More than 400 Occupy Land
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Nueva Democracia on August 12.
In Palermo, Huila, more than 400 people are occupying land amid the housing crisis. Military police fired bursts of gunfire and seriously wounded a member of the community.
More than 400 people, including children, the elderly, single mothers, and pregnant women, occupied public land in the municipality of Palermo, Huila, in search of an alternative to the difficulties they face in accessing decent housing.
The families say their income is not enough to cover rent, food, and other basic needs. For many of the occupants, the decision to settle on this land represents a desperate measure in the face of an economic situation that, they maintain, the authorities have failed to resolve.
The community made a first attempt to occupy the land on August 2, when the municipal officials and the police evicted the families.
A week later, several groups attempted to return to the land, and clashes broke out between community members and repressive forces this past August 8.
During these events, a member of the community was seriously injured by a gunshot. The Ombudsman’s Office states that the bullet was reportedly fired by a member of the Army belonging to the 9th Tenerife Field Artillery Battalion and, in a further statement, warned that the participation of military units in procedures related to evictions does not fall within their constitutional authority.
Two people were also arrested during the events. According to available information, the detainees are being charged with disturbing the peace, assaulting public officials, and illegal land occupation. The community, for its part, maintains that these individuals were participating in the protest for the right to housing and questions the manner in which the arrests were carried out.
The land occupation is being handled exclusively by the military, and a meeting was organized to explain to the community the supposed housing options available to them, completely ignoring the housing crisis in the province and, as well as the widespread corruption, constant breaches of promises, and deception faced by the population.
One of the factors highlighting the difficulties in implementing rural housing programs in Huila is related to an audit of Banco Agrario [Translator’s note: Agrarian Bank] conducted by the Comptroller General’s Office of the Republic, which identified issues with potential fiscal implications totaling $11,488 million in projects in Huila and Cundinamarca and, specifically, a potential loss of nearly $3,000 million in rural low-income housing projects in Tarqui and Suaza, intended to benefit 289 households. According to the Comptroller’s Office, the funds were disbursed, but the projects had shown no actual physical progress by the time the implementation deadline expired; the audit also pointed out deficiencies in Banco Agrario’s controls and potential irregularities in the contracting process. In one of these cases, involving funds totaling approximately $3,048 million in guarantees from Seguros Confianza [Translator’s note: Trust Insurance], a court in Bogotá ruled three weeks ago in favor of the insurer, finding that the legal deadline for filing the claim had expired. Therefore, the court did not thoroughly examine the potential breaches of contract.
It is also important to remember that in 2024, subsidies under the Vivienda Ya [Translator’s note: Housing Now] program were suspended, which exacerbated the situation by halting the allocation of funds for affordable housing. Thus, while the deep housing crisis is ignored and large construction companies and insurance firms that steal public funds earmarked for housing are left unpunished, the people fighting for their legitimate right to decent housing are shot at and criminalized.
