Cecilia López, who has been part of five presidential cabinets and is an 80-year-old social democrat, is leading one of the most important reforms for Colombia’s future: the agrarian reform. This reform seeks to distribute land more equitably and create a fairer, wealthier, and less violent country. She admits that the government has many fronts open, but she is not intimidated by the challenges, as her role in this process is to show results. In terms of land titling, they have delivered almost one million hectares, but land purchase agreements are progressing slowly.
The reform will be considered successful if it can start a revolution that is well executed and gains political support from the people. Despite the difficulties, López is happy to be part of this process and believes that President Gustavo Petro is a very intelligent man who supports her. Although they do not talk individually very often, they have meetings where they discuss the reform for hours.
López believes that the government is facing too many reforms at the same time, which has caused panic in the establishment, but she feels that there is no problem of money to buy the lands needed for the reform; the main obstacle is the offer. She is committed to achieving the goal of delivering 1.5 million hectares of land to peasants during this period, which is half of what is established in the peace agreement with the FARC.