Colombia: Colombia is Charting a New Path Forward after a Brutal Civil War

Jul 28, 2016 | Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, Bloomberg
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In Latin America a critical experiment in land restitution is under way. On June 23 the government of Colombia agreed to a cease-fire with the armed leftist rebels called Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), officially ending hostilities in a conflict that raged for more than 50 years. The fighting has cost about 220,000 lives (80 percent civilian), with more than 6 million people—about 1 in every 10 Colombians—pushed off their land or out of their home. The country has the world’s second-highest number of internally displaced people, only recently eclipsed by Syria’s 7.6 million. They are estimated to have lost a combined 19 million acres, an area roughly the size of South Carolina. Key to the peace that’s slowly taking hold in the nation is an orderly restitution of property.