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BY RACHEL SCOTT

In print | March 17, 2005

Some of Colombia’s most influential political and cultural leaders will come to Swarthmore this weekend for a two-day symposium organized by Dialogues for Peace Initiatives.

According to organizer Miguel Solano ’07, the symposium is the first of its kind among conferences on Colombia because it brings together individuals from all sides of the complex, 50-year long conflict.

“We’re bringing protagonists rather than analysts — policymakers and people who can actually influence what’s going on in the country — to a neutral environment to give them spaces to interact and dialogue, and hopefully they will eventually interchange ideas and change the course of the situation in Colombia,” Solano said.

Panelists include three Colombian senators who each represent different parties, an ex-government negotiator, an official envoy from the vice president, one of Colombia’s leading journalists and an influential Colombian filmmaker, among other speakers.

A cultural event will kick off the event Friday evening, complete with a Colombian food and performances by several Swarthmore musical groups to welcome the panelists. The opening event will also feature a premiere of a new film by filmmaker Marta Rodríguez.

Saturday will feature a morning panel on the history of the conflict in Colombia, focusing particularly on the attempts at peace over the last half-century and the reasons for their failure, Solano said. The afternoon panel will focus on the current state of the conflict and the challenges and prospects for sustained peace.

According to Solano, a rotation of roundtable discussions will follow each panel, giving students and faculty an opportunity to engage in conversation with individual panelists.

“We want to get beyond the format of just panel, question-and-answer, and goodbye,” he said.

Anya Carrasco ‘07, another organizer of the symposium, emphasized the importance of the setting for fostering discussion among panelists themselves. "The most important thing about it is that they’re going to be free of any kind of political pressures," she said. “Swarthmore is a very neutral ground for them. There won’t be any members of the Colombian press.”

However, Carrasco thinks much of the productive dialogue will take place outside of the official events altogether. “We’re going to take [the panelists] on tours and they’re going to be in the same hotels. Conversations that go on behind doors are going to be just as important as what we see in the panels,” she said.

Adam Isacson, senior associate for the Center for International Policy in Washington, will speak at the symposium Saturday. He directs the Demilitarization of Latin America program for CIP, a non-profit organization that promotes foreign policy based on demilitarization and cooperation.

Isacson sees DPI as a meaningful opportunity for reinvigorating awareness on Colombia in the U.S., where the conflict is often viewed only in terms of narcoterrorism. He pointed out that the conflict has not made the front pages of U.S. newspapers since Sept. 11.

“I really congratulate Swarthmore for putting together such a really good line-up of speakers and building … interest in an area of the world where there [has been] less attention … since the war on terror began,” he said.

Additional reporting by Eric Miles Glover

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