A group of students, scholars, fellows and teachers at Harvard University sent a lette to this institution’s directives, protesting about former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe’s visit to the Kennedy School of Government this week.

 

 

Here is the text:

President Drew Faust
Harvard University

Dean David Ellwood
Harvard Kennedy School

Professor Ricardo Haussman
Harvard Kennedy School

Dear President Faust, Dean Ellwood and Professor Haussman:

As students, scholars, fellows, teachers and alumns of this
institution of higher learning that extols a strong commitment to the study and discussion of the pressing issues of the world today, we are writing to protest the visit of Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe Velez to the Kennedy School of Government this week.

The fact that Mr. Uribe’s government (2002-2010) has received positive appraisals from some people in high political or economic positions, and that foreign investment to the country increased during his two terms in office, does not erase the complex legal, ethical and humanitarian problems that defined his tenure, and the investigations and sanctions imposed by international organizations that try to
protect human rights.

Among others, Mr. Uribe’s government has been
shrouded in corruption scandals and diverse incidents of human Rights violations that have affected the institutional and democratic order of the nation and its citizens in profound ways.

Both Mr. Uribe and his aides are currently being investigated by local authorities for their responsibility in illegal activities that range from unlawful phone interceptions to members of the opposition carried out Turing his administration by the national intelligence agency (DAS), to his personal and political connections with the paramilitaries, one of the
most sanguinary armed actors in Colombia’s ongoing armed conflict.

As has been consistently denounced by a diverse number of human Rights groups, scholars, community leaders, journalists and individuals inside Colombia and elsewhere, here is a brief list of some of the ethical and legal problems that taint Mr. Uribe’s legacy today.

(Source: Human Rights Watch):

· The frequent extrajudicial killings of civilians attributed to the
Colombian Army, which the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions recently described as “systematic.”

The Attorney General’s Office is reported to be investigating cases involving more than 1,700 alleged victims in recent years. Uribe refuses to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem.

· Recent scandals over widespread illegal surveillance and wiretapping by the national intelligence service, which answered directly to Uribe. The surveillance focused almost entirely on major opposition political figures, Supreme Court justices investigating the infiltration of paramilitary mafias in the Colombian Congress, as well as on journalists, trade unions, and human rights organizations.

(Please note that one of the people signing this very letter was a direct victim of these criminal acts of surveillance, along with his family).

· The repeated verbal attacks and intimidation of critics by Uribe and senior administration officials, who often try to link legitimate human rights work, journalism, or union activity with the brutal left-wing guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

· Ongoing anti-union violence, with the offenders rarely brought to justice. Colombia has the highest rate of killings of trade union members and leaders in the world. More than 2,700 are reported to have been killed since 1986, according to data collected by the National Labor School (Escuela Nacional Sindical or ENS). The ENS recorded 49 such killings in 2008, up from 39 in 2007. It recorded 20 of these killings in 2009 as of mid-June. Ninety-six percent of the Billings remain unsolved.

Moreover, after his presidential period ended earlier this year, the intensity of the accusations against Uribe’s administration increased in unprecedented ways, marked by the ongoing criminal investigations led by the country’s Supreme Court against some of his closest aides.

Politicians closely allied with the violent project of paramiltary
warlords were consistently named by Mr. Uribe to public office Turing his two terms in office. Even worse, today more than a hundred members of Congress are involved in criminal investigations for their links with paramilitarism. All of them were members of President Uribe’s coalition. The corrupt mechanisms he resorted to obtain his re-election as President in 2006 have pushed several among his ministers and close collaborators to face imprisonment. This was all corroborated by The Economist in a recent article published on November 4th (“The dark side: The former president and his aides are
called to account for dirty tricks”).

Furthermore, in the past weeks, Mr. Uribe has been personally requested via subpoena to testify befote a local court in a case that involves coal-giant Drummond’s collusion with paramilitaries.

In the face of the myriad accusations and investigations that are currently under way against Mr. Uribe and his aides in Colombia, we cannot understand the reasons why this former politician will be treated as an honorary guest (for the second time in the past two years) at a University that sees itself as a center of critical thinking were human rights, justice, and democracy are valued. In this sense, we agree with the important academics from every corner of the United States and the students from Georgetown University who have
expressed their heartfelt protest against Mr. Uribe’s presence there as well.

The decision by members of the Harvard Kennedy School to
invite Mr. Uribe as a guest speaker is not only deeply offensive to many Colombians whose present and future is and will be affected by this government’s misdeeds. It also places this Institution at risk of legitimizing the ethically suspect actions of a politician whose legacy is being strongly questioned on various grounds.

Furthermore, we observe with preoccupation the contradiction between the consideration of Mr. Uribe as an honorary guest at the Kennedy School, when current Harvard Neiman Fellow, Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, has publicly and explicitly denounced – information that has been corroborated by local and foreign journalists – that he was one of the victims of widespread illegal surveillance and wiretapping by national intelligence service activities during Uribe’s administration.

As Colombians, students and scholars who are interested in Latin American politics and culture, and members of this university who are concerned with justice and value a critical engagement with the World around us, we strongly reject Mr. Uribe’s presence at Harvard University as a priviledged guest of a center that values democracy, good governance, and justice.

Sincerely,

María Osina, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Romance-Languages and Literatures

Alejandra Azuero, SJD Candidate, Harvard Law School

José Rabasa, Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley, Long Term Visiting Professor, Harvard University

Juana Dávila, Doctoral Student, PhD Program, Department of Anthropology

Hollman Morris, Neiman Fellow

Andrés Sanín, Doctoral Student, PhD Program, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Colette Perold, Student, Harvard College

Benjamin Levin, JD Candidate, Harvard Law School

K-Sue Park, J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School

Karla Reyes, BA Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard College

Zuzanna Wojcieszak, Student, Harvard College

Virginie Greene, Chair, Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

María Piedad Quevedo Alvarado, Doctoral Student, PhD Program, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, BA Candidate, History and Literature Concentration, Harvard College

Caroline Light, Lecturer and Director of Studies, Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Zoe Tucker, Student, Harvard College

Karen Narefsky, Student, BA Candidate, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard College

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Ph.D. candidate, Deptarments of Comparative Literature and Film & Visual Studies

Abigail Brown, BA Candidate, Department of Social Studies, Harvard College

E. Lamprea, Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School

Nefer Muñoz, PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Maxim Trudolyubov, Fellow Nieman Foundation

Lily Higgins, BA Candidate, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard College

Darryl Li, PhD Candidate, Anthropology & Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Adrienne Rosenberg, BA candidate in Social Anthropology and Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality

Michael Gould-Wartofsky, Alumn, Harvard College, Class of 2007

Walter Hryshko, Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Charlotte Lieberman, BA Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard College

Andreu Espasa, Lecturer in Catalan Language and Culture, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Juan Andrés León, PhD Candidate, History of Science Department

Lei’La’ Bryant, Harvard College Class of 2011

Marcella Antonina Marcella, Harvard College Class of 2011

Julia Havard, Harvard College Class of 2011

John Sheffield, alumn, Harvard College Class of 2009

Jessica Villegas, Harvard College Class of 2011

Chelsea Link, Harvard College Class of 2012

Gabrielle Gould, Harvard College Class of 2011

Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza, PhD, Lecturer, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Inna Berezkina, Affiliate, Neiman Foundation

Marissa Vahlsing, Co-president, Harvard Law School Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

Sarah MacVicar, student, Harvard College

Komala Ramachandra, alumni, Harvard Law School 2010