When
Where
Center for Latin American Studies, Fall 2024 Charlas con Café – a weekly space to hear lectures from a wide variety of experts and discuss topics relevant to the Latin American region, Fridays from 1-2 pm (unless otherwise specified). Coffee & snacks starting at 12:30pm!
Join us on Friday, Dec. 6, for the last charla con café of the semester on "La Masacre Bahía Portete 2004, 20 Años de Lucha y Resistencia" (The 2004 Bahía Portete Massacre, 20 Years of Struggle and Resistance) with Débora Barros, Peacebuilding Leader.
This event is in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation.
In this presentation, Débora Barros, a Wayuu woman, human rights lawyer, and community leader, will talk about the Bahía Portete massacre that took place in the Department of La Guajira, Colombia in 2004. The massacre, perpetrated by paramilitary groups, resulted in the forced displacement of more than 600 Indigenous Wayuu who took refuge in neighboring Venezuela. Twenty years after the massacre, Barros recounts how the Wayuu have resisted and survived and how new armed groups continue to generate displacement in Indigenous communities.
Débora Barros is a lawyer, specialist in civil procedural law and specialist in human rights and international humanitarian law. She has a Master’s degree in Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from the University of Magdalena, Colombia. As a leader and member of the Wayuu indigenous people, she was selected to represent the first group of victims at the Dialogue Table between the Colombian State and the FARC Guerrilla, to express their feelings, dreams and desires for the construction of peace in Colombia. She also served as police inspector of the Municipality of Uribía in 2004, Governor in charge in 2016, Secretary of the Departmental Government in 2016, and Advisor to the Government Office in 2016.
Débora will be selling beautiful handicrafts from her community, including Wayuu backpacks!