The Colombian community at Yale and the Yale World Fellows invite you to attend,
The challenges of reintegrating ex-combatants and building peace in Colombia:
Are we changing one war for another?
Thursday November 13, 2014, 5:00 pm
Kroon Hall, Room G01
Yale School of Forestry School and Environmental Studies
Negotiators from the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have signed
preliminary agreements on the three of their five-point agenda. Peace appears simultaneously tantalizingly
close but also extraordinarily difficult to imagine given the structural challenges facing Colombia. This
discussion, based on Dr. Alex Fattal’s years of anthropological research into the current model of demobilizing
guerrilla fighters and Paula Moreno’s work with communities at risk, will address the question: How should
Colombia re-configure its strategy for reintegrating former rebels in the event of a peace agreement so that
the conflict does not merely transform into another type of warfare, but rather give birth to a lasting peace?
Paula Moreno, Yale World Fellow 2014, President Visible Hands Corporation
From 2007 – 2010, she served as the Minister of Culture in Colombia—the first Afro-Colombian woman and
the youngest person to hold a cabinet-level ministry in the country’s history. Moreno founded and directs
Manos Visibles (www.manosvisibles), a nonprofit organization established to promote social inclusion and
peace building in Colombia by strengthening organizations supporting urban youth and women, with an
emphasis on high-risk minority communities. Since 2010, Visible Hands has reached more than 500
community leaders and organizations that influence more than 25,000 Colombians.
Alex Fattal, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University's Mahindra Humanities Center
Dr. Fattal completed his PhD in Anthropology with a secondary field in Critical Media Practice in 2014. His
research focuses on the role of media in the Colombian armed conflict and combines work in the social
sciences, digital humanities, and documentary arts. Alex work in Colombia dates back to 2001, and he has also
conducted long-term research in South Africa. For more information about his work visit www.alexfattal.com.