Abandoning their precarious homes, carrying sick babies in their arms - and a few belongings - hundreds of Colombians are forced to escape from their villages every day. The country's rural inhabitants are attacked indiscriminately by the different factions engaged in the 40-year-old civil conflict. In Lago Agrio (above), a little village on the border with Ecuador, a group of terrorized Colombians beg for refugee status. (Photo by Maria Cristina Caballero)

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

These issues and others will be addressed by experts from around the world at a Kennedy School ARCO Forum event called "Colombia: Struggling against Terrorism, Working toward Peace" on Tuesday (April 30) at 6 p.m.

The interest of the United States in Colombia's problems is obvious: About 90 percent of Colombia's cocaine production is bought by U.S. drug users; the Colombian defense ministry estimates 300 tons of cocaine per year are smuggled from Colombia into the United States. Colombia's two main guerrilla groups (known by the acronyms of their Spanish names, FARC and ELN) and the illegal counter-guerrillas (the AUC) have been declared among the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. Colombia's capital, Bogota, is a three-hour flight from Miami and a six-hour flight from Boston.

Now - with the United States dedicated to wiping out global terrorism and Colombian presidential elections set for May 26 - the U.S. and the international community are debating the most effective and constructive role to play in Colombia. A panel discussion - "Colombia: Struggling against Terrorism, Working toward Peace" - will bring together a Colombian civic leader, a leading Colombian journalist, a Bush administration official, a United Nations representative, and other commentators for a frank discussion about Colombia's problems and the proper role of the United States and the international community in assisting in solving them. The panel discussion will be moderated by Joseph S. Nye Jr., dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Nye is a former chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council (1993-94) and former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs (1994-95).

Speaking for the first time in the Boston area will be the Rev. Francisco de Roux, winner of the 2001 Colombian National Peace Prize. Roux works in the middle of one of Colombia's most violent regions, Magdalena Medio, overseeing more than 70 different development projects in 29 municipalities. These projects aim to educate and train the poverty-stricken population to help themselves through, for example, the building of schools, roads, and businesses.

The other guest speakers are: