FARC guerrillas announce controversial asset list

By Richard McColl

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - A delegation from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Friday publicly disclosed a list they submitted to the government of their assets to compensate their victims.

The total value of the land and belongings is believed to be 963 billion Colombian pesos (US$326 million). Once the inventory was summarized, it showed that the FARC owns at least 241,000 hectares of land, 292 vehicles, 20,724 head of cattle, 597 horses, sums of cash money in both Colombian pesos and U.S. dollars and more than 267.520 grams of gold.

“The inventory delivered was done very specifically,” said FARC representative Pastor Alape at a press conference. “We have never been a legal entity, and so what we have has come about outside of the legal norms. Due to the dynamics of war, a lot of information has been lost, and a great deal of this at the hands of our adversary.”

But the list has caused commotion in financial and political circles in Colombia, resulting in Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez sending a series of questions to the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Rivera, about how these assets would compensate the victims of the guerrilla group.

The attorney general criticized, in particular, a supplement in the inventory which referred to “equipment and basic tools” and which included items such as “mops, brooms, boots, dishes, orange squeezers, cups, pans, talcum and plates” and other household items. According to the attorney general, these items are unsubstantial assets with no resale value.

Regarding the attorney general’s queries, Pastor Alape responded on Twitter, saying “the attorney general seeks to caricature the FARC’s assets, hiding the truth intentionally and appealing to sensationalism.

Resulting from the agreements reached in Havana, Cuba in the peace accord between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government in 2016, all assets belonging to the FARC will be used to compensate their victims of forced disappearance, rape, displacement, kidnapping and land mines. To this end, an autonomous estate will be created to manage the funds.

Alape laid to rest questions about whether the FARC possesses anything outside of Colombia.

“The FARC has no assets abroad because we were an irregular guerrilla, clandestine (army), so this would be impossible. Our resources have always been here. We kept them hidden away,” he said.