On September 7, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Yesterday we accompanied the @ACVCRAN [the Campesino Association of the Cimitarra River Valley] in the Tres Bocas village in San Pablo, Bolívar for a verification mission with the @DefensoriaCol [an “institution of the Colombian State responsible for promoting the effectiveness of human rights”] and the @PGN_COL [Attorney General].”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied ACVC-RAN, a social organization operating in 120 villages in the Magdalena Medio region, since 2007.

PBI-Colombia has explained: “ACVC promotes the substitution of coca leaf crops with alternative agricultural projects. To do so, it supports families that participate in the National Crop Substitution Program (PNIS for its Spanish acronym) that was created as part of the implementation of the Peace Agreement. The ACVC and allied organizations in the villages of San Pablo and Cantagallo have achieved the participation of almost six hundred families in the national crop substitution program.”

Last month, a column in La Silla Llena noted: “Unlike the reduction seen in other regions of the country, coca cultivation and alluvial gold exploitation in the Caribbean registered increases in the departments of Córdoba and Bolívar.”

“In the case of the department of Bolívar, 13 of its 44 municipalities have coca crops planted (all of them located in the south of the department).”

San Pablo is one of “the municipalities with the most hectares planted with coca” and it is “an area where armed actions have recently been presented between the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the dissidents of the 37th Front of the former FARC-EP.”

The column adds: “It is no coincidence that just in the territories with the greatest increase in coca cultivation and gold exploitation, the greatest effects on the civilian population are concentrated.”

ACVC-RAN recently posted: “On August 18, a verification mission was scheduled as an extraordinary mechanism of self-protection in the Tres Bocas village of the municipality of San Pablo, Sur de Bolívar, given the call of the communities for acts that allegedly threaten and violate human rights…”

That statement adds: “Climatic conditions prevented access to the territory” for that meeting, but a group of people did meet at that time where “the situation that has been occurring in the rural area was analyzed” confirming the need for a verification mission “in the face of actions that are being carried out by the armed actors who are present there” specifically “to listen to the communities and generate actions aimed at preventing damages that violate human rights and infractions.”

When the mission did happen on September 6, @DefensoriaCol tweeted: “Our Regional Magdalena Medio, delegates from @onucolombia [the United Nations in Colombia], @PGN_COL and local authorities spoke with communities of the Tres Bocas district, in San Pablo, south of Bolívar. @DefensoriaCol will advance a training session in #DDHH [human rights] with JAC [Community Action Boards] leaders and presidents.”

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