[Mitai-announce] Human Rights in Columbia with Diana Gomez, This Tuesday at 7:30 in the Student Center basement!

[Jasmine Park]

Human Rights in Colombia
With Diana Gomez

Tuesday February 26th
7:30-9pm
Latino Cultural Center (Basement of buildling W20, MIT's student  
center at 84 massachusetts Ave)
Refreshments provided

Co-sponsored by Colombia Vive and the MIT Western Hemisphere Project

Diana Gomez is a courageous Colombian and active member of the  
organization Movimiento Hijos e Hijas por la Memoria y contra la  
Impunidad (Movement of Sons and Daughters for Memory and against  
Impunity).  Her father was among the hundreds if not thousands of  
people assassinated or "disappeared" in Colombia since 2002. Diana  
Gomez has been active in women's movements in Colombia as well as el  
Movimiento de Hijos e Hijas, and organization that works overcome the  
polarization, violence, and exclusion in Colombian history and fight  
for human rights by sharing their experiences and the truth of the  
crimes committed against their family members.

Directions:  http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=W20&Buildings=go
Accessible by Kendall/MIT stop on the Red Line or the #1 bus line.






More about Diana Gómez

Diana Gómez is an active member of the organization Movimiento Hijos  
e Hijas por la Memoria y contra la Impunidad (Movement of Sons and  
Daughters for Memory and against Impunity). She is a graduate student  
in anthropology who has been writing a master’s thesis on the history  
of feminism in Colombia.

Diana Gómez is the daughter of Jaime Gómez, who was forcibly  
disappeared on March 21, 2006, in Bogotá, and whose remains were  
found one month later, on April 23.  He was an aide to Senator Piedad  
Córdoba (Liberal party) at the time of his murder. Jaime was a  
recognized trade union leader. In 1995 he was a member of the City  
council of Bogota, and an adviser to well-known politicians such as  
Antonio Galán and Piedad Córdoba.  He was a professor and researcher,  
held a degree in history and a graduate-level degree in political  
science. He also did historical research that allows one to see the  
permanent obstacles to attaining peace in Colombia and the frequent  
cases of impunity.

At first President Uribe told the Colombian and international  
community that Jaime Gómez’s death was the result of an accident.   
However, in late 2007 the Office of the Attorney General (Fiscalía)  
determined that Jaime Gómez’s death was a homicide.  Nonetheless, no  
progress has been made in identifying the assassins, the direct  
perpetrators, or the motives for the assassination.

Diana has also been active in the women’s movement in Colombia for  
the last five years, participating in various organizational efforts,  
including the Confluencia Democracia y Paz (Confluence for Democracy  
and Peace).

According to the human rights organizations that make up the  
Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos, from 2002 to date  
approximately 950 persons have been killed in extrajudicial  
executions.  In such violent incidents, the Army and Police speak of  
guerrillas killed in combat. Yet the information that the NGOs have  
collected indicates that in these cases the victims are defenseless  
civilians who in some cases are arbitrarily detained and subsequently  
disappeared. In addition, according to the Colombian Commission of  
Jurists some 3,040 persons have been assassinated or disappeared due  
to paramilitary actions during this same period.  At the same time,  
all parties to the armed conflict have continued committing  
violations of international humanitarian law, including killings and  
kidnappings by the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of  
Colombia (FARC).

These gross human rights violations by state agents and the  
paramilitary forces that have operated with their acquiescence or  
active support have occurred in the context of the “Democratic  
Security” policy of President Uribe, in office since August 2002.   
This resulted in the rising influence of paramilitarism (understood  
as the alliance between criminal  mafias and sectors of the Colombian  
State).