Monday, November 5, 2018, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM. 
Marcos Knoblauch has been a full-time member of Christian Peacemaker Teams - Colombia (CPT-Col) since June 2017. He will be in Columbus to talk about the work of CPT-Col and the challenges faced by the rural communities and human rights workers and organizations that CPT-Col accompanies. Most of this work involves the 7.7 million people displaced since 1985 according to the Colombian government. 2017 saw the implementation of the Peace Accords between the Colombian national government and the FARC, the largest of the revolutionary guerilla organizations. 2017 also saw slightly over 300 human rights defenders murdered worldwide, 121 of those deaths happened in Colombia, compared to 60 in 2016. [1] 2018 has shown little improvement.  Marcos will share stories about the safe havens that CAHUCOPANA [2] (Corporation of Humanitarian Action for Coexistence and Peace in Northeastern Antioquia) has built to host and shelter social leaders and human rights defenders who have been threatened. CAHUCOPANA is asking the Colombian government to officially recognize those safe havens or refuges and requesting the State to provide collective protective mechanisms. CPT-Col has been accompanying CAHUCOPANA since 2008 because an international presence can increase the space of security for its leadership.  In 2016 he was invited to serve temporarily with CPT in Hebron after which he joined and completed CPT training in January 2017. Since June 2017 he has been a full-time member of the CPT Colombia team in the Magdalena Medio region, accompanying communities and social leaders who are in high risk due to their labor in defense of human rights in the context of the armed conflict.  [1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/may/01/2017-deadliest-year-on-record-colombian-human-rights-defenders [2] https://pbicolombia.org/cahucopana/.  Location:  Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Ave., Columbus 43214.  More information on Facebook.