Guiomar Duenas-Vargas, a history professor at the University of Memphis, gave a lecture on The Colombian Conflict in the Michael D. Rose Theatre on Wednesday.
Duenas-Vargas collaborated with the foreign language department at the university. Vania Barraza- Toledo, an associate Spanish professor, helped to host the event.
“We decided to invite students and the public to know about the peace agreement in Columbia,” Barraza-Toledo said. “We hope to give a better idea of what happened.”
For over fifty years, Columbia has suffered from war due to guerrilla groups during the 1960s, “La Violencia” from 1948 until 1958 and the assassination of Colombian leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala in 1948.
Duenas-Vargas said that on Sept. 26 of this year, the Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace treaty aimed at ending the conflict.
On Oct. 5, the people voted 50.2 percent against the four-year negotiation of peace between the government and FARC. Those who favored the accord voted 49.8 percent - just a 0.2 percent difference in the votes.
On Oct. 7, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia won the Nobel Peace Prize for attempting to end the Colombian conflict that lasted from 1963 until 2016. “The country is currently in a state of limbo,” Duena- Vargas said.
