Colombia will give properties confiscated from drug trafficking groups and valued at some $4.9 billion to farmers, women's organizations, youth collectives and universities, leftist President Gustavo Petro said on Thursday.
The Andean country has traditionally sought to sell confiscated properties and goods to fund victim reparations and last year launched a real estate agency tasked with managing some of the houses, farms and other properties.
But selling them is often challenging, with buyers fearful previous owners or their relatives will show up, especially as major former right-wing paramilitary leaders return from serving drugs sentences in the United States.
"We must make it so that illegally-acquired assets pass to the Colombian people. It isn't just any amount, it's 22 trillion pesos ($4.9 billion)," Petro said at an event celebrating the appointment of officials including the new head of the country's anti-money laundering unit.
"It will require much courage," Petro said, according to a statement about the event.
Petro, who was elected in June, has promised ambitious social programs he says will begin to right centuries of injustice in Colombia and that he will seek "total peace" with leftist guerilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) and crime gangs.
($1 = 4,467.03 Colombian pesos)
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Tom Hogue)
