Enrique Chimonja Coy:
Enrique is a social leader, human rights defender and member of the victims’ network Communities Constructing Peace in the Communities (CONPAZ). In 2017, he was selected the Human Rights Defender of the Year in the national awards for human rights, granted by Diakonía and the Swedish Church. He began his social justice work with the Catholic Church, doing pastoral and missionary work for seven years in different regions of Colombia, such as Santander, Boyacá, Antioquia and Cundinamarca. Then for over 23 years he worked in the Inter-Church Peace and Justice Comission, accompanying communities in processes of civil resistance and the construction of peace in the midst of armed conflict, in the regions of Chocó, Antioquia, Meta, Putumayo, Cauca, Valle de Cauca and Huila.
María-Eugenia Mosquera Riascos:
María-Eugenia is from the outskirts of Popayán, in the department of Cauca. She studied ethno-education at the University of Cauca. She is a human rights defender and victim advocate. She first got involved with human rights work with the Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (grassroots faith communities) in the poor neighborhoods and rural areas around Popayán. Between 1991 and 2001, she was a volunteer with the Inter-Church Commission of Peace and Justice. Between 2001 and 2018, she worked for the Commission, accompanying Afro-Colombian, indigenous and small-scale farming communities who are victims of the social and armed conflict, and are building models of humanitarian protection in rural and urban areas in the departments of Chocó, Antioquia, Valle del Cauca and Meta. In 2022, María-Eugenia was selected as the recipient of the United States Insitute of Peace’s Women Building Peace Award based on her skills and track record in using the many instruments of peacebuilding, her effectiveness in representing traditionally marginalized communities during the peace talks in Havana, and the impact of her 30-year commitment to advancing peace in Colombia.
Emily Schmitz
A former FOR-USA accompanier, Emily holds a degree in Arts and Global Studies from the University of Minnesota. She has also worked in translation and, more recently, as part of an investigation on increasing security or human rights defenders in Colombia. Emily was appointed to this newly-created post in the summer of 2016.
Abilio Peña
Irene Benitez
Cristina Espinel-Roberts
Cristina Espinel arrived to Washington, DC in 1980 to complete her education and has a Master’s degree in counseling from George Washington University and is specialized in play therapy. Cristina co-founded the Colombia Human Rights Committee in 1981 and has been an active member ever since. She also co-founded the US Office on Colombia in 1997 and the Mental Health Department of the Clinica del Pueblo in the early 1990s. She founded the counseling program at the Calvary Bilingual/Multicultural Learning Center, today known as Centronia. She is married to Charlie Roberts, lawyer and professinal translator and interpreter. They have two children Julian Roberts (BA in international relations, Tufts University, Medford Massachusetts, 2008); and Sarah Tila Roberts (BA, Hampshire College, Amherst Massachusetts, May 2012).
John Lindsay Poland
John Lindsay-Poland has written about, researched and organized action for human rights and demilitarization of US policy in Latin America for 30 years. Currently he coordinates Stop US Arms to Mexico, a project of Global Exchange, and serves as California Healing Justice Associate of the American Friends Service Committee, with a focus on police demilitarization. From 1989 to 2014, he served the interfaith pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), as coordinator of the Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean, as research director, and founded FOR’s Colombia peace team. He is author of Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama (Duke University Press, 2003). He is also principal author of Assisting Units that Commit Extrajudicial Killings: A Call to Investigate US Military Policy Toward Colombia (with Amnesty International, 2008); Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications (with U.S. Office on Colombia, 2010); The Rise and Fall of “False Positive” Killings in Colombia and the Role of U.S. Military Assistance, 2000-2010 (with Coordinación Colombia-Europa-Estados Unidos, 2014); as well as articles, reports and books on U.S. military bases, policy, and history in Latin America. From 2003 to 2014, he edited a monthly newsletter focused on Colombia and U.S. policy, Latin America Update.
Kati Hinman
A former accompanier with FOR Peace Presence, Kati is from the small town of Norfolk, Connecticut. After 18 years in the woods, she was ready to broaden her horizons by attending the University of California at Berkeley. She majored in Peace and Conflict Studies with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. She spent a year in the Dominican Republic working as Assistant Director and Volunteer Coordinator for a small organization that served primarily Haitian migrants and Haitian children that were on the streets. She is excited to be able to work again with FOR Peace Presence and human rights defenders in Colombia.