In total, 11 municipalities in the country benefited from the land concessions granted the day before, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed.

According to the ministry, several drug lords operated on the lands handed over, such as Gonzalo Rodriguez, alias “El Mexicano,” who was the co-founder and second-in-command of the Medellin Cartel.

Other lands were used by Israeli Yair Klein, who trained the first paramilitary groups, financed by Gonzalo Rodriguez.

For years, these lands served as centers of operations and refuge for drug traffickers and paramilitaries, and now they will be converted into spaces for living, production, and peace, the ministry stated.

In order to secure the transfer of these 18,000 hectares to the peasantry of the Magdalena Medio region, it was necessary to deploy large-scale police operations, coordinated by the National Land Agency, the Special Assets Society, and accompanied by an elite police team.

The recovery work included covering several kilometers of vast land that had previously been used as drug processing and trafficking centers, training centers for illegal groups, and weapons storage, the ministry said.

Among the places that profit from the state’s decision are La Dorada, in Caldas; Cimitarra and Sabana de Torres, in Santander; Puerto Boyaca, in Boyaca; Puerto Nare, Puerto Berrio, Puerto Triunfo, and Yondo, in Antioquia; Honda, in Tolima; and Puerto Salgar, in Cundinamarca.

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