Unit for Victims rescheduled the payment of compensation to the farmer who denounced it

The Victims Unit rescheduled the payment of compensation for Enrique del Carmen Castillo Ortiz for 30 April. The news was released by the entity on the morning of this Tuesday, 19, through a statement to public opinion. A long-awaited moment for the 80-year-old peasant who lives in the department of Magdalena.

In June 2020, the same entity endorsed the payment of its compensation twice, for the murder of her son in 1997 by illegal armed groups in Aracataca (Magdalena), in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia.

By means of resolution No. 04102019-711684 of June 1, 2020, the entity undertook to make the corresponding transfer in two payments. The first in June of the same year, by 50% and in November 2021, by 25%. The remaining 25 per cent of the State's compensation is owed to his wife.

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However, despite the ruling, Castillo Ortiz denounced that he never received a weight from the Victims Unit: “I don't know what happened to the compensation. One is illiterate. You don't know if you're deceived or not deceived. I've never been called for payments or anything,” he said in an interview with El Espectador.

In the early days of March 2022, a court in Santa Marta agreed to study the guardianship filed by the 80-year-old man, to verify whether his rights, due process and his vital minimum have been violated.

In its statement on Tuesday, the Unit for Victims stated: “As a matter of priority, 50% of it was distributed in favor of Castillo. However, in 2021 the Unit partially revoked the measure, as beneficiaries with equal or better rights appeared later and therefore the monies were returned to the national treasury.”

In his interview with El Espectador, Castillo Ortiz emphasized that, “that's a lie. In no bank has there been any money in my name. The family gives me money. Friends give me ten, they give me five thousand pesos. They give me the ticket. Some give me food, others give me sleep,” he added.

In the guardianship presented, the father of the murdered young man announced that a resolution of the Unit for Victims in November 2021, had concluded that his case was prioritized and recognized as a highly vulnerable person.

Regarding the case of the protection action brought against him, the Unit for Victims stated in its public letter that, “the Legal Advisory Office responded to the release of knowledge on April 8 of this year and the Unit for Victims is awaiting the ruling.”

While the court gives an official response to this guardianship, the State Unit has already pledged to reactivate the corresponding payment of compensation by the end of this month.

With this notification, Enrique del Carmen Castillo Ortiz hopes that the entity will finally comply with his word. In his interview with El Espectador last Good Friday, the farmer from Magdalena concluded: “In various conversations with the Victims Unit's online call center (chat) I was informed that the money order corresponding to my compensation had been sent and then returned because it had not been collected. This situation has already occurred three times.”

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