By Nitu Pérez Osuna*
(Opinion) The chapter of a new war in Colombia has already been written for all to see as President Petro plays with criminal groups in search of “total peace.”
This time, an unprecedented civil confrontation over land grabbing erupted and threatened to worsen.
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“Thousands of lives and private property are at risk, but the authorities are doing little or nothing,” reads the cover story of the Sept. 17 Semana magazine, titled “Invaders, the new war.”
It appears to be a quote from the indictments made public in Venezuela.
At the time, Hugo Chávez turned a blind eye to land invasions that he promoted through the so-called “Chaz method,” which caused an unprecedented agrarian crisis that drove Venezuelans into mass exile.
In the face of the wave of invasions, former President Álvaro Uribe said that if authority is not exercised in the face of invasions, sooner or later, private justice will come on the scene, and things will get worse.
We understand President Petro’s proposal to solve some land problems, but this cannot be done at the price of allowing invasions that result in new bloodshed through private justice.
And this cannot be done at the cost of terrorizing the productive sectors in the countryside.
Faced with this threat, cattle ranchers are beginning to organize.
For example, in an area of Magdalena where attacks are a recurring occurrence, “a group of 400 cattle ranchers had no choice but to unite and stage a sit-in last Saturday.”
This in the face of the imminent danger posed by a group of invaders who want to appropriate more than 4,000 hectares of land illegally.”
For his part, the president of the Colombian Cattlemen’s Association, José Félix Lafaurie, proposed the creation of a group of cattlemen who would “immediately respond in solidarity and support the owner in the event of an encroachment.”
Meanwhile, the Petro government announced its intention to pay young criminals to escape violence in exchange for studying.
He ordered the suspension of the arrest and extradition of members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the abolition of the fumigation of cocaine crops with glyphosate, and the prohibition of bombing areas taken by guerrilla groups.
All this in the name of promoting their “total peace strategy.”
Former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa asked about paying juvenile delinquents to study, “Petro’s ‘Youth in Peace’ are Bolivarian militias, budding thugs.”
“Are only those who have committed crimes paid? Those who are at risk of becoming delinquents?”
“Who selects them and how? Are they trained? Don’t they pay the poor, smart, hardworking young people?”
Meanwhile, Senator María Fernanda Cabal opined on her Twitter account that these young people could be a kind of Colombian “collectives.”
Similar to the Venezuelan armed groups defending the Chavista revolution and the Guardians of the Revolution in Cuba and Iran.
As can be seen, Gustavo Petro has been in the Palacio de Nariño for less than two months and is already putting the Chavista model into practice in Colombia.
Institutions must react in time before Petro drags the country into the abyss and thousands of Colombians wander the streets of the world as Venezuelans do.
Nitu Pérez Osuna* Venezuelan. A journalist by profession, communicator by trade, and activist for the best causes by vocation.
She was a columnist and radio and television host in her country of origin. She has established herself as a powerful ‘YouTuber’ in “El canal de Nitu” and “Plomovisión 24: horas de opinión”.
She is an international organizational communication consultant. She is a freedom fighter and a relentless researcher of the truth.