This is Martha Carvajalino, the new Minister of Agriculture of President Petro who remembered her controversial opinion on expropriation

Martha Carvajalino, the new Minister of Agriculture, will replace Jhenifer Mojica – credit @MinAgricultura/X

On the morning of Tuesday, July 2, 2024, President Gustavo Petro confirmed through his account X Martha Carvajalino as the representative of Jhenifer Mojica in the Ministry of Agriculture.

The new head of the Agriculture portfolio will aim to promote agricultural reform in the Republican Congress, and make the countryside more productive in the national territory, according to the president.

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“I thank Dr. Jennifer Mojica for her collaboration with the Colombian countryside and the peasant movement. The hands of the hoe will know how to love the woman who was with them. Dr. will continue. Martha Carvajalino continues the task that will promote agrarian reform and a productive area with social justice.” said the head of state.

Petro announces the new Minister of Agriculture – credit @petrogustavo

Martha Viviana Carvajalino is a lawyer, specialist in constitutional law and holds a master’s degree in Law with an emphasis on research from the National University of Colombia.. The new Minister also has experience in the management of agricultural and environmental law, territorial conflicts and rural planning.

In her resume, Carvajalino says she has more than 17 years of experience as a consultant on agricultural and environmental issues in public entities and international cooperation agencies.

From 2016, Martha Carvajalino She served as a judicial attorney for environmental and agricultural matters in the Attorney General’s Office.

Similarly, she was deputy minister of Rural Development between June 2023 and January 2024, but decided to step aside due to differences with Gerardo Vega regarding the issue of land purchases.

On June 20, 2024, the new Minister of Agriculture specified “expropriation of land is covered, possibly before, in law 74 of 1996. The law has become a ghost“.

Martha Carvajalino served as Deputy Minister of Rural Development – credit Ministry of Agriculture

During that period of time, Carvajalino aimed to reactivate the national system of agrarian reform, as well as the activation of territorial nuclei for agrarian reform to redistribute land and consolidate the peasant proposal.

Among the institutions where Carvajalino has worked are the Special Administrative Unit for the Management of Expropriated Lands, the National University, the offices of local mayors, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

A few weeks into the new legislature in the Congress of the Republic, President Gustavo Petro has said that agricultural reform is necessary to consolidate peace in Colombia.

In his speeches, President Petro said that “we cannot waste the fertile land, that land has a social function in Colombia. Wealth is not having the land, it is wealth in the production of the land. “In this way Colombia will be richer, that is the basis of peace.”

On social networks he also stated “my government has made a peaceful agrarian reform mechanism with voluntary land purchase, but it is not enough to comply with point one of the peace agreement.”

For that reason, the head of state specified that if the peace agreement is not fulfilled, the situation could generate undesirable social consequences.

“There is now an attack against this agrarian reform to prevent it. This act of opposition would have unpredictable consequences. I hope you consider“.

President Gustavo Petro has said more than once that the agrarian reform must be approved – credit Rodrigo Sura/ EFE

And he added: “Agricultural reform is point one of the peace agreement. It is a unilateral declaration by the State before the United Nations Security Council and is an essential point of the government program and development plan.”

Therefore, Martha Carvajalino will have a challenge to continue buying land, especially from ranchers, with the aim of making them more productive in terms of food generation.

To achieve agrarian reform, the Ministry of Agriculture must have the support of various government entities, but not only at the national level but also in relation to the rural area.