Colombia’s New Citizen Movement for Peace: A Conversation with the Leaders of “Defendamos la Paz”

Jul 19 2019

FILE -- People in Bogota celebrate the peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, on Sept. 26, 2016. Colombia’s five-decade civil war took at least 220,000 lives and devastated large swaths of the countryside. (Federico Rios Escobar/The New York Times)

Open to the Public

United States Institute of Peace
2301 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037

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Panel Discussion and Presentation
10:00am – 12:00pm

During its rapid, five-month transformation from a social media group chat into a full-fledged citizen movement, Defendamos la Paz (DLP), or Let’s Defend Peace, has sought to rally political and popular support for the implementation of the FARC peace agreement and the continuation of suspended dialogues with the ELN.

In just a short amount of time, DLP has established itself as an important “umbrella” structure comprised of many key former government and rebel negotiators from both the FARC and ELN peace processes, members of the Congressional Peace Commissions, ex-ministers with diverse political affiliations, victims’ organizations, academics, retired military personnel, and media leaders. The movement has also established sub-national chapters with local civil society organizations throughout Colombia’s conflict-affected regions.

DLP is currently prioritizing the revival of the special electoral peace districts—a critical component of the 2016 peace accord that remains in limbo—by collecting one million signatures, strengthening the legitimacy of the transitional justice court (the JEP), and encouraging creative measures to break the deadlock with the ELN.

On July 19, please join the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Latin America Working Group, the Colombian Human Rights Committee, the Center for Justice & International Law, and the Inter-American Dialogue for a public conversation with three prominent DLP leaders on their vision for this unique civil society platform.

OPENING REMARKS

Lisa Haugaard

Executive Director, Latin America Working Group

SPEAKERS

Juan Fernando Cristo

Former Senator, Ambassador, and Minister of the Interior, Colombia

Laura Gil

Columnist, Professor, and Editor of La Línea del Medio

Gonzalo Sanchez

Professor and Former Director, National Center for Historical Memory

MODERATOR

Steve Hege

Senior Expert, Colombia, U.S. Institute of Peace

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