Global Issues Colloquium to Focus on Tensions in Colombia

Leider Valencia will present “Eradicating Peace: The Other Side of the Colombian War on Drugs” at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 in Baldwin Little Theater.

Valencia is from the Campesino Coordination of Coca, Poppy and Marijuana Growers of Colombia. Emerging from the peace accords in Havana, Cuba, the COCCAM has the objective of promoting the implementation of a solution to the problem of illicit drugs.

Valencia will discuss the grassroots efforts of Afro-Colombians, campesinos and indigenous peoples working toward alternative sustainable development in areas hit hard by internal armed conflict, fumigations and forced eradication/militarization. He will also look at how various forces threaten the Colombian peace process and how movements in the U.S. may contribute in defending it.