I am a founding member of the Colombian Human Rights movement. Prior to joining the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), I worked for ten years with the Latin American Institute for Alternative Legal Service (ILSA). I am a long-serving human rights educator and researcher, with a record in advocating for Colombians who have been internally and/or externally displaced due to civil conflict and ensuing economic upheaval.  Through my work with organizations such as the Centre for Research and Popular Education, the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, the University of Colombia, and the Petroleum Workers’ Union, I have organized and established various human rights programs working with indigenous and Afro-Andean peoples, trade unionists, and human rights activists.

Today, through the AFSC Colombia office I support the work of nonviolent Afro-Andean and indigenous movements and communities which actively resist being incorporated into the civil war as they seek to protect their lands from encroachment and their right to govern themselves based on their cultural norms.