The LatinNews Podcast is a fortnightly deep dive into key developments from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Season 1 | Episode 31
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Show Notes
Colombia’s cluster of armed conflicts seem interminable on the surface but President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftwing premier and a former guerrilla himself, has made Total Peace (Paz Total) a cornerstone policy of his government in an attempt to pull the nation from continual asymmetrical conflicts scattered all about the territory. And while Petro’s approval rating sits at a perilous 32% at the half-way point of his tenure, behind the scenes, Total Peace, a sequence of parallel dialogues conducted with each warring faction, from left wing guerrillas to organized crime syndicates, may just yield some positive results. On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we talk to Andrei Gómez Súarez, a Senior Researcher at the University of Winchester and General Director of Rodeemos el Dialogo, the Anglo Colombian peacebuilding organizing association and hear his take on Total Peace and how this policy may be showing some significant advances despite press reports to the contrary.
Guest
Dr. Andrei Gomez-Suarez Andrei Gomez-Suarez, based in Oxford, specializes in conflict resolution and peace negotiations. He co-founded Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD) and works as a Senior Consultant at Positive Negatives. His academic work includes books like "Genocide, Geopolitics and Transnational Networks" (Routledge, 2015) and "El Triunfo del No" (Icono, 2016). Andrei is also known for creative projects like "Jessica" and "La Confianza," focused on Colombian issues. Currently, he's writing a memoir about growing up amidst political violence in 1980s southern Colombia.
Host
Richard McColl
The LatinNews Podcast is hosted by Richard McColl, a foreign correspondent in Colombia. Having first travelled to Colombia in the late 90s, McColl made the move to Bogotá in 2007. He holds a Diploma in Conflict resolution and a PhD in Social and Human Sciences both at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He has worked as a journalist across Latin America.