Father Francisco 'Pacho' de Roux seminar

Father Francisco 'Pacho' de Roux is a Colombian Jesuit, intellectual and peace builder. He has an MA in economics from the LSE and a Phd from the Sorbonne. He has played a major role in the efforts to build peace in Colombia. He has assisted in peace negotiations (e.g. with the M19 guerrillas in the late 1980s), but arguably more importantly, in the midst of the Colombian civil war, he has tired to build peace and development in a region of multiple armed actors, the Magdalena Medio. No-one thought it was possible to consider development for the poorest in such a context. Pacho has consistently defied the 'possible'. He gave an inspirational lecture to Peace Studies staff and students on how it is possible to retain a committment to peace against all the odds. Today, he is playing a significant role in supporting the victims of the country's long civil war to articulate their experience to the actors negotiating a peace accord in Havana. More than this, Pacho offers an ethical and spiritual reflection on the challenges of peace and peace building for a country that has known extreme violence and which faces the challenges of turning a Peace Accord into a Sustainable Peace.

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Father Francisco de Roux with Peace Studies staff (Neil Cooper, Jenny Pearce, Donna Pankhurst, Fiona Macaulay) and Clare Dixon from the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD) who are organising Father de Roux's lecture tour.