The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) defended its 135-page list Thursday in the face of fierce objections from a number of government officials.
The former rebels handed the inventory of their property and funds over to the United Nations earlier this month as part of a 2016 peace agreement. The list's contents are to be used to pay reparation to victims of forced disappearance, rape, displacement, kidnapping and land mines.
The FARC is believed to have amassed vast wealth from various criminal activities such as extortion, taking hostages for ransom, and selling coca plants to cocaine traffickers during Colombia's five-decade conflict.
'Exhaustive list'
FARC legal advisor Enrique Santiago told local radio the group had "done something that nobody has done" in presenting a record "so exhaustive that it's even being criticized."
But government officials have described the list as a joke, saying it contains many items with little or no monetary value.
"There are utensils like pots, orange and lemon squeezers, and boots, that will be depreciated and have no commercial value, so they won't be a source of reparation for victims," Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez told journalists.
He said the list was "useless and inappropriate," adding that many assets weren't properly itemized, with declared properties missing crucial real estate registration details.
Post-conflict minister Rafael Pardo said FARC's offerings and the inclusion of "some absolutely ridiculous assets makes a mockery of the victims."
New legal territory
FARC lawyer Santiago defended the document, saying there was "no legal concept in international law that outlines how to deal with this type of property."
When asked about the fate of money FARC earned from illegal activities, he said much of it was channeled into the construction of roads and to support the group's more than 7,000 guerrillas.
Senior FARC member Felix Muñoz, known by the alias "Pastor Alape," told local media the attorney general was misrepresenting the situation: "Why doesn't the prosecutor say that 20,724 heads of cattle were put at the disposal of the (victims' compensation) fund?” he said, adding that the FARC had included 2,500 million pesos ($842,000 or about 714,000 euros) as well as 327.5 kilograms of gold among its assets.
FARC members finished handing over more than 8,000 weapons to the UN earlier this month as part of the demobilization plan detailed in the peace agreement. On Sunday, the group is set to launch a conference to cement its transition into a political party.
nm/rc (Reuters, EFE, dpala)
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Satisfaction!
On March 25, just one day after the end of a historic visit from US President Barack Obama, who was the first US president to visit Cuba in 88 years, the Rolling Stones played Havana. Tens of thousands of Cubans poured into the Ciudad Deportiva stadium to cheer the cult British band's first ever concert on Cuba.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Evo forever?
In a constitutional referendum on February 24 the people of Bolivia voted decisively against a fourth term for President Evo Morales. The 57-year-old leader of the socialist MAS party, who has ruled Bolivia since 2006, acknowledged defeat. But since then he has announced his intention to stand again in 2019 despite the constitutional ban.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Banker's comeback
Surprise in Peru: Pablo Kuczynski, a World Bank economist and former head of Peru's Central Reserve Bank, won the presidential election on June 5 by a wafer-thin majority. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, was the favorite; but it seems that people's fears of a shift to the right outweighed concerns about neoliberalism.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Germany apologizes
At a meeting with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on July 13, President Joachim Gauck apologized for the failure of German diplomats to intervene in Colonia Dignidad, a Bavarian-style agricultural community taken over by a German pedophile, Paul Schäfer, that served as a torture camp for the Chilean secret service during the Pinochet dictatorship. But there was no compensation for victims.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
The world comes to Rio
It was a festival of superlatives: Around 10,000 athletes and half a million spectators took part in the Olympic Games in Rio from August 5 to 21. The biggest sporting event in the world remained mercifully free of terrorist attacks, storms, epidemics and crime; but the IOC made negative headlines with yet another corruption scandal.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Bolt bathes in the adulation
Nine-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt was a popular favorite at the Games, and became an idol in the host country Brazil. The six-foot-five (1.95-meter) Jamaican sprinter ran the 100 meters in 9.81 seconds to make him the first athlete to win the event three times in a row.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Dilma Rousseff forced out
Not only was she the first woman president of Brazil, she was also the first woman president to be impeached. On August 31, the required two-thirds majority of the Brazilian senate voted for the 70-year-old Rousseff to be removed from office. Brazilian society is still divided over her impeachment.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Colombia dares to make peace
A miracle comes true: After more than 50 years of civil war, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the FARC rebels, Rodrigo Londono, signed a historic peace agreement in Havana on September 26. Seven million people were internally displaced as a result of the Colombian civil war, which also claimed more than 200,000 lives.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
The people say no
But in a referendum on October 2 the Colombian people voted by a narrow margin to reject the peace agreement. President Santos renegotiated with FARC and presented a new agreement, which was approved by the Colombian Congress on December 1. Santos was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
SOS Venezuela
Venezuela at the edge of the abyss: Hunger, poverty and fear are rife in the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world. Mismanagement and the fall in the price of crude oil have caused a serious economic crisis. There are shortages of basic foodstuffs, medicines and electricity. In 2016, inflation was already more than 700 percent. Anyone who can is leaving the country.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Trump: No thanks!
The election of Donald Trump as the next US president has cast a shadow over Latin America's relations with its northern neighbor. Here, in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, a street artist has sprayed a nine-meter caricature of the US president-elect on a concrete wall at the Rio Bravo canal.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Tragedy strikes
Disaster in Colombia: A plane belonging to Bolivian airline LaMia crashed on approach to Medellin after running out of fuel. Some 71 people died, including 19 players of Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense Real. The footballers were en route to a Copa Sudamericana final match. There was worldwide consternation over the tragedy. Chapecoense were later declared the winners of the tournament.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Elections in Haiti
After numerous failed attempts, a Haitian election finally produced a result. On November 20 the majority (55.7 percent) of Haitians elected the 48-year-old banana plantation owner Jovenel Moise to be their head of state. But the turnout was shockingly low: Only 1.3 million of the 6.2 million Haitians eligible actually cast their ballots.
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Latin America makes history in 2016
Farewell to Fidel
The death of Fidel Castro on November 25 marked the end of a political era for Cuba. Revolutionary, head of government, president, and first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, "El Comandante" was a worldwide figurehead for the Left. His resistance to the United States and to the trade embargo imposed by Washington turned his socialist island into a symbol of the Cold War.
Author: Astrid Prange
