SPEAKER: Karen Paiva Henrique, University of Amsterdam DISCUSSANT: Daniele Tubino de Souza, Wageningen University & Research DATE: 16 May 2025 ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE Efforts to adapt cities to flooding have long relied on evolving infrastructural paradigms that seek to overcome past (material) limitations to control exacerbating water flows. In the context of a global climate crisis, the urgency to prevent and manage urban floods has renewed calls for locating the ‘right’ technical solution as defined within global expertise networks. This lecture critically traces how this pursuit for the flood adaptation ideal unfolds in Latin American cities. Focusing on São Paulo’s eastern periphery, I map the evolution of flood adaptation to demonstrate how, when juxtaposed to the complex materialities and temporalities of the city’s floodplains, discrete interventions evolve into new infrastructural hybrids. Attention to such hybrids, I argue, allows for a more nuanced understanding of flood infrastructures as dynamic objects, making visible the many ways in which they entwine, coexist, and transform one another while creating and foreclosing possibilities to achieve urban climate justice.

Participantes: Diego Galdo-González, sociólogo, profesor Fecha: 8/05/2025 Idioma: Español Observaciones: Entrada gratuita Lugar: Instituto Cervantes (Utrecht) - Salón de Actos / Conferentiezaal Domplein, 3. 3512 JC Utrecht "Detrás de la imagen de mujer famosa, casi siempre existe un modisto, maquillador o peluquero quien actúa como un amante platónico, un consejero o pañuelo de gasa que seca sus lágrimas y levanta su ánimo" Con estas palabras, el escritor chileno Pedro Lemebel nos recuerda el papel esencial –y a menudo invisible– de las peluqueras y peluqueros hashtag LGBTQ en la construcción de imágenes, identidades y comunidades. Pero, más allá del espejo y las tijeras, los salones de belleza han sido mucho más que espacios de estética. En el Perú, como en otros países de América Latina, la peluquería ha sido históricamente un refugio, un escenario de resistencia y un espacio de socialización donde innumerables personas encontraron trabajo, respeto y una comunidad que en muchos otros lugares les era negada. El Archivo Bello nace con la misión de documentar y preservar esta historia, centrándose en los salones de belleza del Perú desde los años cincuenta hasta el presente. Diego Galdo González es docente del CEDLA. Sus temas de interés son las culturas sexuales, la historia de la sexualidad, y el urbanismo en Lima del siglo XX. Galdo-González ha publicado artículos en GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies y en Argumentos, la revista del Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. Su proyecto más reciente acerca de la historia de los salones de belleza LGBTIQ+ en el Perú ganó la beca Prins Bernhard en el 2024.

SPEAKERS: Diana Gómez Correal (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Goya Wilson Vásquez (University of Bristol) DATE: Monday 28 April ACTIVITY: CEDLA SEMINAR In this seminar, Diana Gómez Correal and Goya Wilson Vásquez will present their research on state violence, memory, and transitional justice in Colombia and Peru. Drawing on their recently published books, the speakers will explore how state violence has been systematically overlooked in transitional justice frameworks, perpetuating impunity and exclusion for victims, the organizations they belong to and their families. Gómez Correal’s De Amor, Vientre y Sangre: Politización de Lazos Familiares y Gestación de una Paz Transformadora en Colombia (2024), examines the politicization of relatives of state violence’s victims, focusing on the role of emotions, identity and subjectivity. Through a decolonial and feminist approach, the book critiques the limitations of transitional justice for tackling victims’ rights and claims; and offers a transformative vision of peace rooted in the proposals and lived experiences of affected communities. Wilson Vásquez’s Learning through Collective Memory Work: Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru (2025), traces the struggles of the HIJXS de Perú collective, the children of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), as they navigate the stigma of being labeled “children of terrorists” and reclaim a space in a post-war society. The book theorizes memory work through a cycles of inquiry approach, placing alongside three movements: a realist testimonio, a politics of memory, and a poetics of memory to challenge dominant narratives and explore alternative ways of knowing. Methodologically, both authors display embodied and activist research that develop creative methodologies, as well as innovative strategies of writing that challenge traditional notions of knowledge production. Their work exemplifies a reflexive and critical approach to research that bridges activism and academia, offering new possibilities for understanding violence, memory, and transitional justice in Latin America. Together, in addition to share the methodological approaches, the speakers will address critical questions related with the specificities of State violence; the blindspots of transitional justice regarding this violence; the particularities of the category of “victim” in this context; and the contributions of the organizations of victims and relatives in rethinking justice and society in both countries. ​ SPEAKERSGoya Wilson Vásquez has a PhD in Education from the University of Bristol. Born in Peru, grew up in Nicaragua and now lives in the United Kingdom where she works on memory struggles and creative/radical methodologies from Latin America by examining the dilemmas of writing violence, the intersections between research and activism, and the uses of creativity/imagination in memory work. Diana Gómez Correal has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She was the first vice-minister for women in the Ministry of Equality and Equity in Colombia, and has also worked as an associate professor, researcher, and public servant. Her research interests include transitional justice, memory, gender and feminist studies, social movements, decoloniality and post-development. Gómez Correal has been involved with women's, feminists, peace, victims' and generational movements in Colombia.    DESCRIPTION OF BOTH BOOKS De Amor, Sangre y Vientre: Politización de Lazos Familiares y Gestación de una Paz Transformadora en Colombia  / Diana Gomez Correal (2024) The book explores the particularities of state and paramilitary violence and social transformation in a context of political transitions and disputes over the meaning of peace and transition in Colombia. The book is the product of a situated ethnography that focuses on relatives of victims of such violence and their processes of politicisation. The research included an autoethnographic component and the deployment of a decolonial research methodology. This book draws on decolonial feminisms and dialogues with different strands of critical theory from anthropology, history and other disciplines. It is therefore a research that recognises the importance of subjectivity, the body and emotions in the production of knowledge; and that displays a sensitivity to the social suffering experienced by those victimised by state and paramilitary violence. The book was written with three alter egos that represent the academic, the activist-family member and the decolonial thinker. The text is structured in three sections: love, blood and womb. The first focuses on the role of emotions, the construction of the identity of victims, changes in the subjectivity of relatives of victims of state and paramilitary violence and the way power circulates in the contentious field of victimisation. The second offers a long-term reading of this violence; and the third analyses the implementation of transitional justice in Colombia from a critical and proactive perspective. Learning through Collective Memory Work: Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru / Goya Wilson Vásquez (2025) This book traces the process of producing testimonio with the children of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) which was a former insurgent group during Peru’s internal war (1980–2000). Through a decade-long engagement with the HIJXS de Perú collective, the author examines how the group lives the post-war struggles over memory while dealing with the ‘children of terrorists’ stigma.The writing navigates the ambivalence and complexities of ‘testimonio’ as an important and necessary tool for countering the silencing and dominant narratives that construct them and their parents as ‘terrorists’ and exclude them from the category of victims - and at the same time the impossibility of testimonio, both in ethical and epistemological terms, because to write (about) violence is to denounce it but also to reproduce it, and because ‘realist’ testimonio is also an iteration of a certain re-presentation. Drawing on a cycles of inquiry approach, the book theorizes three movements for memory work: a realist presentation of testimonial narratives, a ‘politics of memory’ engaging with the conditions of production, and a ‘poetics of memory’ that troubles memory, voice and representation for qualitative inquiry in post-war contexts. The author challenges the notion of war-torn countries as pure devastation, and invites readers to see them as sites of knowledge and creativity, with much to offer for education, peace studies and social justice research.

Networking event for researchers organized by CEDLA-UvA On Friday, 17th January 2025, CEDLA-UvA hosted a networking event at Vox-Pop in Amsterdam to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The afternoon brought together researchers, NGO workers, journalists, and others interested in Latin America to discuss the region’s key challenges and opportunities. Discussions touched on current developments, the difficulties of doing research in and on Latin America, and ways to collaborate despite challenges like budget cuts. The open, interactive format encouraged participants to share experiences and explore solutions together. The event ended with a lively networking session, where new connections were made, and ideas for future projects were exchanged. It was a valuable moment to reflect, collaborate, and strengthen the community of Latin Americanists in the Netherlands.

SPEAKER: Kirwin Shaffer, NIAS Fellow and Pennsylvania State University DATE: 14 February 2025 How did Latin American anarchists interpret and portray world events a hundred years ago? In the years following the Great War (later known as World War I), these anarchists critically analyzed the Treaty of Versailles and the creation of the League of Nations. They condemned the Treaty’s armistice for solely punishing the Central Powers' aggression while rewarding the Allies, who were neither forced to disarm nor to decolonize. Additionally, they opposed Latin American governments’ pursuit of representation in the League, criticized Socialists and Social Democrats for collaborating with nationalists and capitalists within it, and denounced the League’s International Labor Organization as a feckless capitalist instrument. Yet, anarchists also feared U.S. proposals to establish a rival League for the Americas to advance U.S. neocolonial policies in the hemisphere. In this lecture on a dynamic period in global history (1918–1922), Kirwin Shaffer will discuss how Latin American anarchists conveyed their interpretations of world events to their readers and followers. Analyzing global history from the ""periphery"" (Latin America) and ""bottom-up"" (working-class anarchists) challenges mainstream narratives and provides new insights into the impacts of imperialism on marginalized voices around the world.

SPEAKERS: Markus-Michael Müller, Roskilde University Markus Hochmüller, Freie Universität Berlin & University of Oxford DISCUSSANT: Abbey Steele, UvA DATE: 11 April 2025 ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE This talk examines Colombia’s transformation into a regional security exporter under the United States-Colombia Action Plan on Regional Security (USCAP). Signed in 2012 by Presidents Barack Obama and Juan Manuel Santos in Cartagena, USCAP aimed to strengthen Latin America’s security forces by positioning Colombia—a country long perceived as fragile and a source of regional instability—as a model of a professional and adaptable security provider. Over the past decade, the Colombian Armed Forces and National Police have trained tens of thousands of security personnel across the region, shaping a new narrative of Colombia’s role in regional security. Drawing on original research, including over 70 interviews with policymakers, military and police officers, diplomats, and security advisors, the presentation explores how Colombia’s security assistance—focused on counter-narcotics, counterinsurgency, and migration control—prioritizes stability, pacification, and national security, often at the expense of citizen safety.

SPEAKERS: Christien Klaufus, CEDLA - UvA DISCUSSANT: Ilse van Liempt, Utrecht University DATE: 7 March 2025 In cases of heightened immigration to consolidating informal settlements, various dynamics come into play. On the one hand, traditions of mutual aid may foster a receptive attitude toward newcomers, as residents understand firsthand the challenges of starting a new life from scratch. On the other hand, given their own struggles to establish infrastructure and secure livelihoods, the host community may view newcomers as competitors seeking to benefit from their hard-earned gains. For immigrants, adjusting to a new community often involves navigating unfamiliar norms and facing prejudice or discrimination. As such, their strategies to “salir adelante” (move forward) tend to be shaped by mixed opportunities and setbacks. From an analytical standpoint, periods of significant transnational migration intensify a variety of visible and invisible borders and boundaries. This lecture examines how urban borderscapes structure both neighborhood space and the social fabric, focusing on informal settlements that exhibit enclave-like characteristics. Drawing on new research in Medellín, Colombia and San José, Costa Rica within a NWO-funded project, the lecture explores these boundaries and potential spaces for convergence, offering preliminary findings that illuminate how migrants respond to these challenges. See www.cedla.nl/urban-project  for more information on the project ‘Contesting Urban Bordescapes in Latin America: Investigating governance through b/ordering processes in self-help neighbourhoods’.

Dr. Jaime Arocha - Departamento de Antropología / Grupo de Estudios Afrocolombianos, Universidad Nacional de Colombia 11 February 2011 Activity: CEDLA Lecture In the Pacific coast of Colombia, African captive men and women developed adaptations to the ecosystems in which they were forced to live during colonial times. In the course of time, these innovations have been a necessary and crucial element of environmental and social sustainability. Today this eco-social system is threatened by armed conflict and modernization, but public policy makers have not responded to safeguard them.

SPEAKER: Cristina Aoki Inoue, Radboud University DATE: 23 February 2024 ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE The triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution combined with global hunger and social inequality urge us to rethink justice. In this lecture, Cristina Aoki Inoue will discuss the concept of planetary justice in light of indigenous ways of knowing and being in the Amazon. She argues that listening to voices from many worlds could be one of the pathways to a safe and just planet for humans and the more than humans. The talk zooms in at the case of a company that wants to build the largest open-pit gold mine in the state of Pará (Belo Sun in Volta Grande do Xingu). In her qualitative analysis, Dr. Aoki Inoue includes a review of indigenous peoples´ consultation protocols and legal documents.

"Three challenges facing Brazil in the global economic transition: Financialization 2.0, in(fra)vestments, favelas" Professor Gary Dymski - Leeds University Business School Discussant: Dr Barbara Hogenboom (CEDLA) 22 March 2011 Activity: Globe Lecture Series Developing nations face huge challenges in the post-2008 global economy, as they attempt to not only sustain growth but to cope with the strategic adjustments being made by the US and the EU and their corporate leaderships. Brazil’s situation is especially precarious because of its population’s heightened expectations (“O Novo Brazil”), because of its growing export ties to the US, EU, and to China, and because its successes in reducing extreme poverty have now led to the challenge of invigorating its informal, lower-income communities. After tracing out the main lines and implications of the still-unfolding crisis in the US and the EU, we focus on three specific challenges for Brazil. The first involves contending with the post-crisis developments in financialization, both domestically and abroad; the second is how to manage investment so as to permit continued growth and also address the nation’s infrastructure deficit; and the third is to work out sustainable futures for Brazilian cities’ favelas and the people who live there. Of course, these three challenges are all the harder because they tied up in an interconnected series of knots. Gary Dymski is professor of economics at the University of California, Riverside. He received his B.A. in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, and an MPA from Syracuse University in 1977. After a year at the Brookings Institution in 1985-86, he taught economics at the University of Southern California before joining the UCR faculty in 1991. He served as associate dean in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2001-02 and was founding director of the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development in 2002-03. From 2003 to 2009, Gary was the founding Executive Director of the University of California Center, Sacramento, a UC-wide center that introduced UC students to public service and connected UC researchers with California’s policy-making community. Gary has been a visiting scholar in universities and research centers in Brazil, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea, Great Britain, Greece, and India. His most recent books are Capture and Exclude: Developing Nations and the Poor in Global Finance (Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2007), co-edited with Amiya Bagchi, and Reimagining Growth: Toward a Renewal of the Idea of Development, co-edited with Silvana DePaula (Zed, London, 2005). Gary has published articles, chapters, and studies on banking, financial fragility, urban development, credit-market discrimination, the Latin American and Asian subprime financial crises, exploitation, housing finance, the subprime lending crisis, financial regulation, and economic policy. He is a member of the editorial boards of the International Review of Applied Economics, Geoforum, and Econômica (Brazil).

SPEAKER: Fernando Valdivia, Editor Responsable del Informe Final ACTIVITY: CEDLA Lecture and Photo Exposition DATE: 21 February, 2020 Esta exposición destaca los hallazgos más importantes de la Comisión de la Verdad en Bolivia y reflexiona sobre el trabajo de este tipo de órgano desde la experiencia boliviana. La comisión recopiló documentación y testimonios que resultaron en más de 6000 expedientes, con el objetivo de esclarecer las graves violaciones de derechos humanos durante las dictaduras militares entre 1964 y 1982. En ello sobresale la desclasificación de documentación militar y policial relacionada a esa época. EXPO Opening “Ink & Blood: Historical Solidarity with Latin America” Combining material from the collections of KADOC and its partner institutions, this exhibition offers a unique insight into a dynamic era of Belgian solidarity with Latin America. During the opening of the exhibition there will be a panel discussion on the faces of historical and contemporary European solidarity with Latin America, led by professor emeritus Michiel Baud, and followed by drinks.

13/5/22, 15.30h Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor Activity: CEDLA Lecture Gema Kloppe-Santamaria , Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Loyola University Chicago Discussant: Prof. Wil Pansters, Utrecht University What were the political and cultural drivers that contributed to shaping Catholics’ understanding of violence as a legitimate means to defend their religious practices and beliefs in post-revolutionary Mexico? In this talk, Dr. Gema Santamaria will focus on the 1930s-1950s, a period marked by the end of the Cristero War (1927-1929) - Mexico’s armed conflict over the religious question - and the so-called détente between the Mexican state and the Catholic Church. Despite the Church’s official rejection of the use of violence amongst the faithful, during this period Catholics continued to engage in belligerent and violent forms of religious militancy in the name of Christ and religious freedom. This, she argues, reflects the weight that non-canonical understandings of martyrdom, sacrifice, and redemptive violence had in Catholics’ exercise of religion. Catholics’ aggressive defence of religious symbols and places, together with their attacks against individuals perceived as “polluting” or “impious”, show that moral and symbolic considerations were deeply intertwined with uncompromising political ideologies and long-term intra-community conflicts.

SPEAKER: Alan McPherson, Temple University ACTIVITY: TNI & CEDLA Event DATE: 6 March, 2020 ​ On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his colleague Ronni Moffitt. The murder shocked the world, especially because of its setting – in the heart of Washington DC. Based on interviews from three continents, never-before-used documents, and recently declassified sources that conclude that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet himself ordered the hit and then covered it up, Alan McPherson offers the full story of one of the Cold War’s most consequential assassinations. The Letelier car bomb forever changed counterterrorism and democracy. It also pointed to the underlying, century-long struggle between fascism and human rights in Latin America. In his lecture, Alan McPherson presents key findings of his latest book: Ghosts of Sheridan Circle (2019).

Implicaties voor onze relatie met de regio DATE: 4 June, 2020 ACTIVITY: NIMD, CEDLA, Impunity Watch, CNV internationaal De COVID-19 pandemie laat geen land bespaard en veroorzaakt ook een diepe crisis in Latijns-Amerika. De behaalde vooruitgang op het terrein van armoedebestrijding, rechten van vrouwen, arbeiders en inheemse groepen, milieubescherming en verantwoord ondernemerschap dreigen verloren te gaan. Bovendien maakt de coronacrisis pijnlijk zichtbaar dat zogenaamde ‘oude’ problemen nog heel actueel zijn. De Nederlandse overheid, het bedrijfsleven en maatschappelijke organisaties hebben juist ingezet op ondersteuning van de vooruitgang die Latijns-Amerika doormaakte. Dit roept belangrijke vragen op: hoe bedreigen corona en andere crises de ontwikkeling van Latijns-Amerika? Wat is er nodig om deze neerwaartse trend te keren? En wat betekent de coronacrisis voor de Nederlandse relatie met de regio? Latijns Amerika Debat Sprekers: o.a. Achraf Bouali, tweede kamerlid D66; Barbara Hogenboom, directeur CEDLA; Marit Maij, directeur CNV Internationaal; Joost de Vries, correspondent Volkskrant Latijns-Amerika; Marijke Zewuster, hoofd Emerging Markets & Commodity Research ABN AMRO.

SPEAKER: Florencia Roitstein y Andrés Thompson, ELLAS-Mujeres y Filantropía DATE: 20 November, 2023 ACTIVITY: CEDLA Lecture Estamos en un momento crítico de la historia latinoamericana. Las mujeres están liderando una nueva ola de movilización y de filantropía a lo largo de la región que comenzó en 2015 con la marcha histórica de “Ni una menos” en Buenos Aires, Argentina. Las mujeres se sienten más que nunca motivadas a compartir sus historias acerca de su papel en el activismo social. Ellas se están reencontrando y reapropiando de sus voces y sus vidas, y están asumiendo su responsabilidad por un futuro mejor. Estos movimientos han sido posibles gracias a las “donaciones” masivas de tiempo, capacidades, capital social y dinero de miles de mujeres. Este compromiso e involucramiento contrasta con la falta de apoyo de la filantropía institucionalizada y de los programas sociales corporativos. Las mujeres, que antes donaban silenciosamente, hoy coordinan protestas, escriben columnas de opinión en los medios sociales, hablan públicamente y se organizan para promover cambios sociales reales, adaptándose a los tiempos de la pandemia del Covid-19. Ellas no pueden “quedarse en casa”. En su conferencia, Florencia Roitstein y Andrés Thompson presentarán su nuevo libro con las historias de 23 mujeres latinoamericanas que son grandes ejemplos de movilización de recursos para el cambio social: La rebelión de lo cotidiano. Mujeres generosas que cambian América Latina. El libro puede descargarse gratuitamente aquí .

Organisatie door NIMD, CEDLA, Impunity Watch, CNV internationaal De COVID-19 pandemie laat geen land bespaard en veroorzaakt ook een diepe crisis in Latijns-Amerika. De behaalde vooruitgang op het terrein van armoedebestrijding, rechten van vrouwen, arbeiders en inheemse groepen, milieubescherming en verantwoord ondernemerschap dreigen verloren te gaan. Bovendien maakt de coronacrisis pijnlijk zichtbaar dat zogenaamde ‘oude’ problemen nog heel actueel zijn. De Nederlandse overheid, het bedrijfsleven en maatschappelijke organisaties hebben juist ingezet op ondersteuning van de vooruitgang die Latijns-Amerika doormaakte. Dit roept belangrijke vragen op: hoe bedreigen corona en andere crises de ontwikkeling van Latijns-Amerika? Wat is er nodig om deze neerwaartse trend te keren? En wat betekent de coronacrisis voor de Nederlandse relatie met de regio? #LatijnsAmerikaDebat Sprekers: o.a. Achraf Bouali, tweede kamerlid D66; Barbara Hogenboom, directeur CEDLA; Marit Maij, directeur CNV Internationaal; Joost de Vries, correspondent Volkskrant Latijns-Amerika; Marijke Zewuster, hoofd Emerging Markets & Commodity Research ABN AMRO.

12 October 2021, 15:30-17:00 Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor CEDLA Lecture Speaker: Ruben Gonzalez Vicente , Universiteit Leiden This presentation explores the developmental footprint of China’s Belt and Road Initiative through a theoretical lens inspired by critical Caribbean thought. Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente will discuss how Sino-Caribbean relations remain shaped by epistemic dependency, structural imbalances, and a number of unresolved social issues relating to the postcolonial condition in former plantation societies. He argues that expectations deposited in the emerging ‘South-South’ link with China in Latin America and the Caribbean are easily overstated. Instead, the relation is characterized by China’s elitist business-centric approach to development, the eschewing of participatory approaches in Sino-Caribbean ventures, and the passive incorporation of the Caribbean into China’s global vision. The presentation is based on his work with Annita Montoute (University of the West Indies).

Webinar co-organized by CEDLA and the Embassy of Costa Rica in the Netherlands Keynote speaker: Luis Guillermo Solís, former President of Costa Rica and Interim director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, FIU Discussants: Prof. dr. Kees Koonings and Prof. dr. Dirk Kruijt, Utrecht University Chair: Prof. dr. Barbara Hogenboom, CEDLA — University of Amsterdam This lecture took place on 24th of September 2021 as part of the CEDLA Lecture Series. Costa Rica is one of the most stable democracies of the Western Hemisphere. Located in a region prone to political unrest, where military rule has been a historical constant, Costa Rica has been able to avert the maladies of authoritarianism and human rights violations due to a series of decisions made after reaching independence precisely 200 years ago, in 1821. Two are generally considered central to the country’s progress: an early adherence to public education, and the establishment of a universal, solidarity-driven, social security system. There is however a third, unique and unusual decision that laid the foundation of Costa Rica’s internal stability and international peace: the abolition of the armed forces as a permanent institution in 1948, at the end of the country’s last civil war. During this seminar, Luis Guillermo Solís, former president of Costa Rica (2014-2018), will discuss the short and long-term implications of this extraordinary measure. Professors Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt, specialists on the role of the military in a number of Latin American societies, will reflect on experiences and current challenges in other parts of the region. In a roundtable discussion they will discuss the wider effects and possibilities for demilitarization that the Costa Rican example sets for the region at large.

19/11/21, 15.30h Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor Julienne Weegels, CEDLA - ARTES, University of Amsterdam In 2018, massive protests shook Nicaragua and their repression was brutal. Over 300 people were killed in a ‘Clean-Up Operation’ that exposed militarized political policing and the formation of partisan, armed para-state groups. Over the course of the following months and years, more than 1.600 people have been imprisoned for expressing resistance and dissent. Tracing the trajectories of a number of these political prisoners through the Nicaraguan criminal justice system and, in some cases, back out, I explore distinct performances of the ‘law’ and hybrid state power. Provoking a sense of ontological insecurity among its subjects, acting outside of and manipulating the law point to the ‘force of law’ rather than the rule of law as pivotal to the exercise of power. This in turn informs protesters’ and (former) prisoners’ performances of state delegitimation - think of street and prison riots, but also more silent contestations - where conceptions of authority, justice and law are reimagined.

Speaker: Stefan Peters, Instituto CAPAZ (Bogotá) & University of Giessen 3 December 2021, 16.00-17.30 Venue: CEDLA - 2nd Floor Activity: CEDLA Lecture The Colombian peace process is at a crossroads. Although there is important progress, for example regarding transitional justice, various key issues for peace building continue to be unsolved. Moreover, we cannot speak of peace at all and rather we are observing a transformed violence. The talk will analyze the state of the peace process five years after the peace agreement and highlight important voids in both the agreement and implementation. It will close with recommendations that are crucial for building a lasting and sustainable peace in Colombia.

11/03/22, 15:30h Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor Organiser : CEDLA Lecture Speaker: Saskia P. Ruth-Lovell, Radboud University Nijmegen How does clientelism affect contemporary policymaking? To better understand and explain the relationship between clientelism and the quality of policy output in the case of Mexico, Saskia Ruth-Lovell analyses policy design and identifies ways to curb clientelism through the letter of the law. Building on insights from distributive politics and policy analysis, she discusses the results of elite interviews and qualitative content analysis of social policy legislation in Mexico from 1995-2018 . Based on research with Rodrigo Salazar Elena (FLACSO Mexico) and Louise Smink (Radboud University), she argues that policymakers and stakeholders need to formulate precise policy objectives, delimitate the scope and targets of a policy clearly, and establish independent implementation and monitoring mechanisms.

1/4/22, 15.30h Organiser: CEDLA Lecture Dr. Patricio Simonetto , University College London Unlike other countries where gender affirmation surgery access was restricted but still allowed under certain conditions, Argentina has prohibited any treatment that affected reproductive organs since 1967. Different legal codes have penalised people dressed as the “opposite sex” since the 1930s. This criminalisation has threatened trans people’s right to existence and made gender affirmation practices clandestine, expensive and dangerous. In this presentation, Dr. Patricio Simonetto analyses how male and female trans people challenged state restrictions by producing knowledge and homemade technologies to affirm their gender. He explores the history of a vast repertoire of medical and social practices, such as self-injected hormones or liquid industrial silicone. The presentation also explores how people have experimented with their bodies, performing them in living laboratories to affirm their gender beyond legal and medical control, and how this pushed them to precarious conditions. Finally, it addresses how activists have formulated an alternative body discourse that challenges the biotechnological promise of an alleged “correct body” as an undeniable trans future. Discussant: Dr. Eliza Steinbock , author of Shimmering Images : Trans Cinema, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Change (Duke University Press, 2019)

One-day seminar organized by Social and Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and CEDLA 29 September 2022 Audience: Master students and researchers Leiden, UvA, VU, UU Amount: around 50 participants (to be confirmed soon) Form: Hybrid For decades, various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have faced persistent economic challenges, such as chronic inflation, hyperinflation, and far-reaching economic constraints due to international trading sanctions and closed borders related to geopolitical interests and global energy markets. These regional economic precarities have pushed both lower and middle-class communities in Latin America and the Caribbean to look for alternatives when they see again their income evaporate and empty ATMs. The recent Covid-19 crisis has once more revealed how unexpected economic backlashes, tied to overlapping health and (geo)political crises, further exacerbate existing economic and social inequalities in the region. At the same time, we are facing an enormous growth of new digital solutions for day-to-day economic exchange and trade in Latin America. One of the most widespread recent trends associated to digital economies is bitcoin and other global cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum, or local criptomonedas, such as el petro in Venezuela. The premises of freedom, decentralization, autonomy, self-learning, and resistance –renewed promises deriving from the invention of the blockchain– has increasingly attracted many Latin American and Caribbean communities (Pinheiro and Vasen 2021).

Speaker: Carolina Maurity Frossard (CEDLA-UvA & VU), Kees Koonings (CEDLA-UvA & UU), Imke Harbers (Political Science-UvA) and others. 9 December 2022 Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor Activity: This seminar – hosted by CEDLA – was part of the project "It’s Election Year Everywhere: The Digital Politics of Elections and Electioneering Amongst Brazilians Abroad ", made possible by a Global Digital Cultures Seed Grant.

22 November 2022, 15:30-17:00 Venue: CEDLA, Roetersstraat 33 | 1018 WB Amsterdam - 2nd Floor Organizadores: CEDLA & PBI Ponente: Andrea Torres, co-directora de la Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista (FNEB) En colaboración con Peace Brigades International tendremos una charla de la abogada y activista colombiana Andrea Torres quien es también co-directora de la Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista (FNEB). La FNEB está conformada en su mayoría por mujeres familiares de desaparecidos en Colombia y es una pieza fundamental para la representación legal, visibilidad y apoyo a las víctimas de desaparecimiento forzado, violencia sexual y brutalidad policial en el país. Andrea Torres representa a víctimas en varios casos, tanto en la justicia ordinaria como en el sistema de justicia transicional (JEP), donde la mayoría de los acusados son miembros de la fuerza pública. La FNEB logró que el desaparecimiento forzado fuera incluido como crimen de lesa humanidad en los Acuerdos de Paz del 2016. Detuvo la expansión del Puerto de Buenaventura –de los más importantes del país—en el Estero de San Antonio dónde hay indicaciones de cuerpos de desaparecidos que fueron arrojados ahí. Acompañan a víctimas de abuso policial y desaparecimiento en el marco del Paro Nacional del 2021. Torres nos contará sobre los diversos procesos y dificultades que tiene ella como activista y su organización para traer justicia a las víctimas de desaparecimiento forzado. Seguido de la charla queremos invitarles a visitar la exposición SOS Colombia con arte gráfico producido el año pasado durante las protestas en Colombia y continuar la conversación con una copa de vino.