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Latin America/ Caribbean Peacebuilding Program

The AFSC has worked in Latin America and the Caribbean for more than four decades. Together with the people of the region and staff of AFSC’s International Programs, the Latin America/Caribbean Peacebuilding Program builds and supports a well informed, broad-based constituency that works to shape a just U.S. policy toward the region.

The program’s current focus is on Colombia where AFSC has worked since 1995 to oppose the suffering caused by armed actors and to support human rights, economic justice and peacebuilding initiatives. The program focuses on militarism, human rights, and the local impact of free trade agreements. The program works to:

• Dismantle the myth that the war in Colombia is a war on drugs or narco-terrorism by creating educational resources and itinerating speakers from Colombia to the United States to address the real causes of the conflict;
• Lift up the voices of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities living in peaceful resistance to the violence around them;
• Mobilize the U.S. public to put pressure on the U.S. government to change its militaristic policies toward Colombia;
• Bring representatives from partner communities and the AFSC Quaker International Affairs Representative for Colombia to meet with Congressional leaders on a regular basis to lobby for changes to U.S. policy;
• Document cases of human rights abuses and call them to the attention of members of Congress in order to educate them about the impact of U.S. policy on Colombia;
• Advocate within the United Nations and the Organization of American States to support indigenous and Afro-Colombian peace communities.

Visit our new section on Colombia! See the updated website with new resources, reports and testimonies from Colombians living in peaceful resistance.

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