The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the the Pulitzer Center invite you to the following event:
Screening – ‘A River of Blood’: How Colombian Communities Are Fighting to Save the Río Atrato
Spanning nearly half of Colombia’s Pacific coast, the Río Atrato and its tributaries have sustained communities in the Department of Chocó for generations. The Atrato is the foundation of one of the most biodiverse regions of the world. However, armed conflict, industrial mining, and deforestation have poisoned the Atrato and threatened the survival of the majority Afro-Colombian and indigenous population and their ancestral territory.
This past summer, WOLA intern Julia Friedmann visited Chocó as a 2018 Georgetown University Berkley Center Student Fellow for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. She documented how civil society leaders and WOLA partners in Chocó are partnering with the Catholic Diocese to reclaim territory from armed groups and implement legally-mandated cleanup laws.
What can be done to safeguard rural communities in Chocó? Does the Colombian government have the political will to enforce the environmental mandates to clean up the river? How can the international community support these responses?
Please join WOLA and the Pulitzer Center to screen the short video and discuss the wider environmental roots of the conflict in Chocó, and the work of activists to shield their communities from violence.
Event Details
Thursday, March 28, 2019
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Washington Office on Latin America
1666 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Welcome and Introduction
Gimena Sánchez
Director for the Andes Program, Washington Office on Latin America
Kem Sawyer
Contributing Editor, Pulitzer Center
Screening
Remarks
Julia Friedmann
Colombia Program Intern, Washington Office on Latin America
Question and Answer