Gwen Burnyeat
Gwen Burnyeat is a Wolfson scholar reading for a PhD in Anthropology at UCL researching the Colombian peace process. She was previously lecturer in Political Anthropology in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where she also did a Masters in Anthropology as a Leverhulme Trust Study-Abroad Scholar. This was the basis for her forthcoming book 'Chocolate, Politics and Peace-building: an Ethnography of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia' (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) and the documentary 'Chocolate of Peace'. Before that she studied Literature at the Universities of Leeds and Cambridge. She has worked in Colombia for over six years, including with the International Centre for Transitional Justice and with Peace Brigades International.
24 January. With the new year in Colombia came a new sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, holding the state responsible for human rights violations committed in the context of ‘Operation Orion’. In this Operation, the army, together with the ‘Cacique Nutibarra’ bloc of the AUC paramilitary organisation, stormed the marginalised slum neighbourhood ‘Comuna 13’ in Medellín,...
Colombians in the UK use President Santos' state visit to renew their calls for peace following the shock No vote in referendum on peace agreement with the FARC
In her last post from Llanos del Yarí, LAB's Gwen Burnyeat, present at the historic 10th Conference of the FARC, analyses their final declaration and their transition to being a legal political party.
LAB's Gwen Burnyeat travels with members of Rodeemos el Diálogo to meet and seek to understand the FARC, who are about to hold their 10th conference.
With the entire final agreement finally signed in Havana, the peace accords must now be submitted to a national referendum on October 2. The outcome remains uncertain.
The last two pending points in the 4-year negotiations are agreed and the complete final agreement is ready to be signed.
As the country awaits the signing of a definitive ceasefire, the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet offers instructive parallels.
An appeal by the main guerrilla group for intellectuals and artists to join in building the new Colombia
For the national peace process to succeed, local communities need to make sense of their past and keep alive historical memory.