10/01/2023 - Forced Displacement and Land Grabbing in Colombia

WHEN: 10 January 2023, 15:00–16:20

WHERE: MUP Prague-Strašnice building, Dubečská 900/10, Room No. 307

GUEST: Andrés Mauricio Escobar Moreno, University of Leipzig, Germany

Massive waves of forced displacement accompanied decades-long violent conflict between Colombian armed forces and the left wing guerrillas. Estimates speak of 7.2–8.2 million displaced rural inhabitants over the last three decades, up to 40% of them lost their land.

Far from being a mere side effect of the war, forced displacement along with gendered sexual violence have been implemented as a tool used for coercive dispossession of land and land clearing for investment executed by paramilitaries. The lecture discusses particular cases in Colombia in the wider historical and geographic context.

The lecture is followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr. Kateřina Brezinová.

Andrés Mauricio Escobar Moreno is a doctoral researcher at the Justus Liebig University Giessen and the University of Leipzig at the International Relations and Transnational Politics Chair. Since 2020, he collaborates with the Institute CAPAZ, Colombo-German Institute for the peace process.