“In remote places in Colombia, a way of life based on blood and fire has been installed”

by time news

Daniel Rojas, a 36-year-old economist, is one of the people closest to Colombian President Gustavo Petro and since last August he has held one of the most complicated jobs in the country: he chairs the Special Assets Society (SAE), an entity linked to to the Ministry of Finance, which administers assets seized from drug traffickers. It is an especially complicated task in Colombia because drug trafficking has permeated all spheres of society “undermining not only the institutions, but also the country’s own political culture and productive apparatus”, the official detailed in an interview with elDiario.es to his passing through Spain with the intention of establishing alliances in the fight against corruption.

In February, the Colombian Public Ministry suspended him from his position as president of the SAE for 10 days for an alleged breach of contract by halting the sale of shares of the Triple A company (managed by the SAE), which provides public services in the city ​​of Barranquilla, and is being investigated for it. Rojas considered the way in which these shares were sold and to whom they were sold “suspicious” and assures that their value is much higher than what appears in the contract, which was signed in 2021 during the previous government of Iván Duque. His objective, says the official, was to avoid “patrimonial damage.”

The mechanism used by the Executive of Duque to approve the sale of the shares of the Triple A company that were held by the SAE, according to the Colombian media outlet La Silla Vacía, “ended up benefiting private contractors close to Uribismo and the Char clan ”, one of the most powerful families in Colombia linked to marijuana and cocaine trafficking in Barranquilla.

On February 21, the Public Ministry lifted the suspension imposed on Rojas after reaching an agreement with the working group: the Triple A shares that were in the hands of the SAE will finally be transferred “for less than the real value”. to the K-yena company, but it is committed “to eliminate private participation and maintain the public nature of the entity,” Rojas clarifies.

So much President Gustavo Petro Like other members of the government party, they have shown their support for Rojas and believe that the reasons of the Public Ministry for having provisionally suspended him from his position in the SAE and investigating him are rather due to “political and revengeful reasons.”

Rojas, for his part, feels calm and grateful for the support he claims to have also received from the Colombian people. He is also proud of the steps he is taking in Colombia under Petro, who has recently presented an ambitious battery of social reforms to Congress to strengthen the public system.

What happened to the Triple A company and why did the Public Ministry –the Attorney General– end up provisionally suspending him and investigating him?

It is a public service company that operates in Barranquilla that was seized from its former owners for corruption and passed to the administration of the SAE. In the Government of Duque, a business was carried out that consisted of selling this company and it was done in record time despite the complexities of the company. We inherited that business because it was done in installments and the way in which it was sold and to whom it was sold seemed suspicious, so we requested a valuation of the company from a state entity, which told us that the value of the company is much higher than indicated, some 392 million euros [cuando en realidad se vendieron por unos 111 millones de euros].

Given this, we stopped the business and asked the competent authorities to investigate whether there was a patrimonial detriment, but keeping the company’s shares owned by SAE greatly annoyed a certain political class and certain interests. The Public Ministry cornered us and said that if we did not cede the shares, it would take action on the matter, and it did so, provisionally suspending me from office and continuing with the investigation against me.

He took office as president of the SAE, a highly questioned institution that for years has accumulated complaints of corruption, in August 2022. What has been found since then?

We have found inconsistencies of all kinds. It is not known what it manages, there is no real inventory of movable and immovable property, there are many assets that are not evaluated and we do not know their quantification. For some reason, there are assets that are missing, that are not under our administration and that has been the first alert that we have given.

One might think that the assets seized from drug trafficking are the best rural assets, the best luxury houses or the best automobiles, but when checking the inventory it does not appear like that, that is why we pull (pull) this thread. There are assets that have to generate high rents due to their capacity and, nevertheless, they are being leased at a very low cost or they were not generating any type of rent. I cannot make value judgments, but this raises concerns because it may be favoring the formerly affected, those who owned these assets and continue to use them through the help of the institution.

What kind of assets does the SAE manage?

All types. Movable and immovable property, companies, commercial establishments, large and small companies, hotels, houses, farms, animals… When they are difficult to manage, as in the case of cattle, they are auctioned and, if they are real estate, they are leased or sold. . We are making those assets seized from drug trafficking available to community, women’s, and youth organizations that have historically been socially, economically, and politically excluded in Colombia. And when it comes to land, by order of the president [Petro]we grant them to peasant communities so that they can generate productive agri-food projects.

As these are lands that previously belonged to drug traffickers and other criminals, there are peasants who are suffering threats in the country.

That’s how it is. Is a reality. We have wanted to link the Ministry of Defense and the High Commissioner for Peace to guarantee that these communities can use these lands peacefully, but the former holders are not very comfortable with this decision and these communities have expressed their fear of the threats that receive. This must be part of what the country agrees to achieve total peace because what we are doing is justice and we are trying to ensure that peasants who have been historically displaced from their lands can return to them and make them productive.

And have you received threats? Do you feel in danger?

Not exhaustively, but there have been some comments that could be considered as threats. in handing over land [a campesinos]For example, many times former owners show up and their mere presence is intimidating, because they have been involved in criminal actions and consider it an injustice. Before coming [de visita] to Spain, near my parents’ residence, the neighbors have seen cars (cars) with dark windows parked in front pointing to the house and, when my dad went to take a picture of them, they drove off. I have not been afraid that they could attempt on my life, but if they dismiss me, moral annihilation is also a way that is used in these cases. But I can’t let myself be frightened because then we don’t do anything.

Do you consider that the decision of the Public Ministry to suspend you for a few days and investigate you is a way to prevent the agrarian reform announced by Petro from being carried out, with which he intends to hand over concentrated land to peasants?

It’s hard to answer that. There is a lot of animosity towards carrying out this reform, because those who own the land in Colombia, for the most part, are very powerful people who oppose this measure and I am not surprised that they use all the means at their disposal. your power to avoid it. But the national government is also going to continue with its purposes and agrarian reform is an absolute priority for the president, who has demanded speeding up the times because, as he has said, “if it is not done, the country is going to be filled with blood.” .

Why is it so difficult to achieve that definitive peace in Colombia, where murders continue to be committed against social leaders, violence continues in indigenous communities and there are still forced displacements?

The scourge of drug trafficking has not only undermined the institutions, but also the political culture of the country and also its productive apparatus, which has become highly dependent on income from drug trafficking, oil and coal and has ceased to be productive. In the most remote places of Colombia there is no other way of life than the one that has already been established at the point of blood and fire and these organizations, which are not ideological although there are guerillas and paramilitary groups, have accumulated a great territorial power that implies have political power and coercion. They become the State in those territories and the negotiations become more complex with those organizations.

I believe that the Government should toughen its position at the negotiating tables because we cannot talk about peace if social leaders continue to be assassinated in the territories, if at least agrarian reform and transformation of the productive apparatus is not allowed. Otherwise it would be blackmail and the government cannot be blackmailed.

Negotiations with the ELN guerrillas are also pending.

That’s right and the president has already indicated that these organizations stop murdering. Either there is a ceasefire that shows a desire for peace, or the government will have to act with all its military capacity.

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