The Colombia Human Rights Network, in coordination with the U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office, will host its annual Spring Tour of Colombian civil society activists featuring the theme "Colombia's Untold Story - Civilian Voices from Conflict Zones," from March 15 to April 13, 2001. The tour's speakers are grassroots leaders Régulo Madero and Carlos Alberto Palacios, who will visit 9 cities across the United States to tell their stories of advocating for human rights and peace in Colombia. Régulo is the president of the regional human rights organization CREDHOS, and will discuss the complex conflict in Colombia, and the extreme difficulty and danger of working for human rights in the city of Barrancabermeja, hard-hit by violence (see article opposite). Carlos is a former priest and current organizer of the Putumayo Project for Peaceful Coexistence. He will address the impact of U.S. fumigation on human rights and the grassroots struggle for peace in Putumayo department, the area where U.S.-backed counternarcotics offensives began late last year.
The speakers will go to the following cities: Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Santa Ana, Albuquerque, Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco. We hope that you will be able to join us in raising awareness about the human rights crisis in Colombia and the challenges faced by human rights defenders and peace activists. For more details, please contact the U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office: Tel: (202)232-8090 or by email: agiffen@igc.org
