A pioneering peace laboratory in Colombia under threat: "The Cimitarra Valley has not remained a victim of the armed conflict, but has proposed solutions."

Social leader Yésica Méndez (Barrancabermeja, Colombia, 38) aims to spark the interest of international cooperation and European leaders in Spain, Norway, Belgium, and Italy to protect farmers in the Magdalena Medio region and fund the projects of the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC), a leading figure in the defense of land and human rights in Colombia. The organization was founded almost 30 years ago in response to the massive forced displacements caused by paramilitary groups in the Magdalena Medio region, in the northeast of the country, which has historically been one of the hotspots of the armed conflict in Colombia.

Although the association has managed to grow and bring together more than 140 peasant organizations representing some 29,000 people, it is still unable to carry out its work peacefully because armed groups vying for control of the region threaten its leaders . "Despite everything, the ACVC has not remained a victim of the armed conflict, but has proposed solutions for peasants, Afro-descendants, and indigenous people," emphasized Méndez, Secretary of the ACVC Board of Directors, in an interview with EL PAÍS during her visit to Madrid, where she met with representatives of the Spanish Cooperation Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Méndez, who grew up in a low-income neighborhood of Barrancabermeja, observing the union and peasant struggles in her region, has been part of the Catalan Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders since March, which has hosted her for six months, and also has the support of International Action for Peace.

The ACVC has been a kind of laboratory for peace in the country. In 2002, its leaders championed the creation of one of Colombia's first Peasant Reserve Zones (ZRCs). These are the territories delimited by peasant communities and recognized by the state, where rules are established for organizing the land, farming, and protecting the environment. The goal is to protect farmers from conflicts over land ownership, one of the causes of the war in Colombia . When the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Reserve Zone was created, covering some 180,000 hectares, there were only three other zones in the country. Today , it has 20 legally constituted zones . "But their sustainability depends on funding and on being designed from the perspective of communities and not from the comfort of the administration," Méndez explains.

The ACVC, on the other hand, has led recognized illicit crop substitution projects. To ensure that farmers are not forced to cultivate coca leaves, they are offered economic alternatives such as buffalo farming , rice, corn, and cereal cultivation, and the production of goods derived from aromatic plant oils, among others. They also have programs for the protection of human rights and for training young people and women in peasant leadership and environmental conservation.

All of this is now at risk due to the reorganization of other armed groups seeking to occupy the spaces left by the FARC after its demobilization in 2016. The Magdalena Medio region is one of the 11 humanitarian emergency hotspots in Colombia identified by the Ombudsman's Office in February of this year. Currently, the ELN guerrilla group, dissidents of the defunct FARC , and the drug trafficking group Clan del Golfo are present there. The situation is so critical that, in October, the ACVC declared a humanitarian crisis due to the renewed surge in the conflict.

At the end of April of this year, two peasant leaders who were part of the association were murdered , and last September, there was a massacre of peasants and community leaders in the municipality of Yondó . Yésica Méndez is one of the leaders in the area declared an "extraordinary [security] risk" by the National Protection Unit .

There is a signal to the ACVC and pressure to report when and how we enter the area and to ask permission to do our work.

Do not make noise

This isn't the first time a leader from the Cimitarra Valley has spoken out in Europe about the situation in her region— Yenidia Cuéllar was also part of the Catalan protection program in 2023 —but this time, the peasant association's commitment has been to be much more visible. "We're interested in taking on a more public profile, even if that means running the risk of upsetting those in Colombia who don't want us to make a fuss about all the human rights violations being committed," says Méndez.

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for defending human rights , according to the NGO Front Line Defenders in its 2024/2025 report. Last year, 157 social leaders were murdered in the country.

Armed groups not only kill and threaten; they also impede community work. Three years ago, Méndez alleges, FARC dissident groups seized farms where they were carrying out sustainable livestock projects. “They also took away a human rights center we had in the municipality of Remedio,” the leader describes. Furthermore, armed groups exert control over the territory. “The ACVC is being targeted and pressured to report when and how we enter the area and to ask for permission to do our work,” she adds. “Furthermore, illegal mining and logging are being promoted, contrary to what the communities had been doing in the Yellow Line , a vast area of ​​natural forest that they wanted to conserve,” she explains.

From Europe, Méndez seeks to encourage the international community to reconsider this territory and prioritize it in cooperation projects. "Following the 2016 agreement with the FARC, Colombia is considered to be at peace. Therefore, international cooperation has diminished, and some organizations have withdrawn from the area," Méndez explains. Until now, nearly twenty ACVC projects have been funded through international cooperation.

The forced recruitment of minors and young people is another problem the ACVC is fighting against. "This year we managed to create the youth coordinator for the Peasant Reserve Zone," she states. "We want to achieve generational change within the association and create productive projects to prevent young people from continuing to join the ranks of armed groups," she adds. So far in 2025, 140 cases of child recruitment have been documented in Colombia .

Colombia is considered to be at peace following the 2016 agreement with the FARC. As a result, international cooperation has diminished; some organizations have withdrawn from the area and are no longer focusing on the Middle Magdalena.

Although Gustavo Petro's government has promoted a comprehensive peace policy since 2022—a simultaneous dialogue with multiple armed groups to achieve peace— the results have been limited , and civilians in the Magdalena Medio and Catatumbo regions remain at risk. Despite the bleak outlook, the ACVC "believes that peace is the way out." "And it will be much more effective to the extent that civil society can participate," says Méndez, who calls on the Colombian government to guarantee security for the association's members.