PrintVirginia M. Bouvier
Senior Program Officer, Latin America, Center of Innovation
Contact
Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.
For all other inquiries, please call 202.457.1700.
Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French
Multimedia
Countries: Colombia
Virginia M. Bouvier joined USIP in January 2003 as a program officer for the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. She is currently a senior program officer for Latin America in the Center of Innovation.
For the previous seven years, she was an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Maryland. From 1982 to 1989, Bouvier served as senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, where she focused on Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bouvier has also served as a consultant and research director for the Women’s Leadership Conference of the Americas, a joint project of the Inter-American Dialogue and the International Center for Research on Women, and as a consultant at the World Bank, Levi Strauss Foundation, Levi Strauss and Co. and the C.S. Fund.
She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Latin American studies.
Recent Events and Multimedia:
- Video: "Inside Story Americas, July 18, 2012"
Virginia Bouvier joined the Al Jazeera program to discuss Colombia's war-torn Cauca region, where indigenous people tired of conflict recently demanded that both the military and armed rebels leave the area to ensure peace. - Event Audio – “Colombia’s Elections and Consolidation: Moving Beyond FARC and the Paramilitaries?”
On October 21, 2011, the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion on the current achievements and challenges ahead for the Santos administration and the critical importance of the upcoming Colombian elections. The panelists included Adam Isacson of WOLA, Virginia Bouvier of USIP, Claudia Lopez of Northwestern University, and Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution.
Publications:
- In the Field | Mediation Support Network Conference
January 26, 2011 - Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War (editor)
(USIP Press, July 2009). - "Crossing the Lines: Women's Social Mobilization in Latin America," in Governing Women: Women's Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform, edited by Anne Marie Goetz (Routledge, 2008).
- Colombia's Crossroads: The FARC and the Future of the Hostages
Peace Briefing | June 2008 - On the Issues: Colombia
January 25, 2008 - New Hopes for Negotiated Solutions in Colombia
USIP Working Paper | September 2007 - Harbingers of Hope: Peace Initiatives in Colombia
Special Report | August 2006 - "Evaluating U.S. Policy in Colombia," a Policy Report from the IRC Americas Program (2005).
- Women and Global Leadership in the Americas (InterAmerican Dialogue and International Center for Research on Women, 2004).
- Civil Society Under Siege in Colombia
Special Report | February 2004 - U.S. Involvement Deepens As Armed Conflict Escalates In Colombia
Peace Briefing | May 2003 - "Colombia Quagmire: Time for U.S. Policy Overhaul," Foreign Policy in Focus (2003).
- Whose America? The War of 1898 and the Battles to Define the Nation (Praeger Press, 2002).
- The Globalization of U.S.-Latin American Relations: Democracy, Intervention, and Human Rights (Praeger Press, 2002).
- Women and the Conquest of California (University of Arizona Press, 2001, 2004)
Publications & Tools
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The Colombian government announced that it will begin peace negotiations with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), signaling a potential end to the hemisphere’s longest-running armed conflict. USIP’s Virginia Bouvier examines the steps ahead. |
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With the recent announcement that the Colombian government is going to begin formal peace talks with the FARC this coming October, USIP's Virginia Bouvier reflects on USIP's contribution to the country's pathway to peace. |
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August 2012 marks 25 years since the signing of the Esquipulas II agreement in Guatemala that brought an end to the wars of Central America. USIP's senior program officer for Latin America, Virginia Bouvier, explores what lessons Esquipulas II might offer for peace in Colombia. Countries: Colombia, South America
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities, Rule of Law
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On August 27, 2012, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed that he had authorized secret peace talks in Havana, Cuba between government authorities and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). USIP’s Virginia Bouvier looks at the state of the peace process and what might happen next. |
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The theme of the sixth summit of the Americas to be held in Cartagena, Colombia from April 14-15, 2012, is “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity.” USIP's Colombia expert, Virginia Bouvier, previews the summit. Countries: Colombia, Cuba
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Economics and Conflict, Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding
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In coordination with the United Nations Mediation Support Unit and in collaboration with a number of other mediation institutes and experts, USIP is developing a series of "best practices" handbooks on key aspects of mediation and peacemaking. |
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USIP is supporting a research project being undertaken by Winifred Tate, an anthropologist and former USIP Peace Scholar, to document and analyze the role of women in local community-based conflict resolution efforts in the Putumayo department of Colombia. |
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USIP supported the gender unit of the Historical Memory Group (HMG) to develop a unique interdisciplinary and participatory methodology to produce the first official report of the HMG Gender Unit. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
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With the support of USIP, EQUITAS recently produced the report, “Methodological Proposals for Documenting and Searching for Missing Persons.” Based on extensive fieldwork in Antioquia and Casanare, this publication details four innovative methods of locating and identifying the disappeared: computer simulation of water flows to track bodies that have been placed in rivers, analysis of cemetery administrative records, archeological assessment of construction debris dumps and remote sensing analysis to detect clandestine cemeteries. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Mediation and Facilitation, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
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With a grant from USIP, Survivor Corps collaborated with two Colombian partner organizations—Corporación ConCiudadanía and the Fundación para la Reconciliación -- to develop a pilot program that would provide training, skills, practical experience, and psychosocial support for conflict survivors and ex-combatants |
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USIP supported the work of SEMBRANDOPAZ to launch a network in the North Atlantic coastal region of Colombia that creates and links eight departmental Citizens' Reconciliation Commissions (CCR). This network is a vehicle through which to promote and channel citizen participation around issues related to truth, justice, reparations, reconciliation, and reintegration, and to foster national reconciliation processes and debates at the local and regional levels. |
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With the support of USIP, the Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco developed a model psycho-social treatment program for 100 ex-combatants. Three professional counselors trained a group of thirty ex-combatants from the Caribbean coastal region in strategies to assist in their own social reintegration and to train them as peer counselors. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities, Security Sector Reform/Governance
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Colombia’s National Committee of Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR) established a Historical Memory Group, an independent, autonomous unit of 14 respected academics charged with producing an account of the origins and evolution of Colombia’s internal armed conflict, giving special attention to the perspectives of victims. USIP has been supporting the work of the gender unit of the Historical Memory Group. |
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This project sought to highlight the broad spectrum of issues that link media and conflict resolution through a series of customized workshops and trainings in Washington, DC for Colombian war correspondents and editors. While providing an innovative training for Colombian journalists and war correspondents this pilot program also paved the way for more training for war correspondents within other war ridden countries. |
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Improving Interethnic Cooperation and Building Conflict Resolution Capacity and on the Pacific Coast
With USIP support, the Jenzera Foundation for Alternative Development carried out a training project designed to build conflict resolution capacity and encourage inter-ethnic cooperation in a number of rivers in Colombia’s Pacific coast. |
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USIP supported a partnership between Global Rights and AFRODES to build the capacity of internally displaced Afro-Colombians to engage the Colombian government and appropriate international human rights bodies over issues of displacement. |
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Through a grant to Hijos e Hijas por la Memoria y Contra la Impunidad (Sons and Daughters for Memory and Against Impunity), USIP is strengthening a youth organization dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to Colombia's conflict, supporting young people’s desire to serve as leaders for peace in Colombia, and helping to develop the peace-making capacities of the younger generation. |
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With the support of USIP, in 2009, CESTRA (Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones para el Trabajo) provided training in human rights and conflict resolution to residents living in the impoverished outskirts of Bogota that are home to many of Colombia's displaced persons.
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USIP’s Virginia Bouvier discusses the Landmine Awareness Day. Countries: Afghanistan, Colombia
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On Tuesday, February 22, 2011 the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Esquel Group, and the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue co-hosted a roundtable discussion on “Violence and Reconciliation at the Community Level.” This invitation-only discussion explored the complexity and challenges of not only defining reconciliation, but also of evaluating and determining what processes and outcomes constitute successful reconciliation. Issue Areas: Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
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On August 7, 2010, Juan Manuel Santos, a defense minister under the outgoing administration of President Alvaro Uribe, was inaugurated as Colombia’s new president. Peace issues were largely absent from public debate during the presidential campaign, but unexpectedly surfaced in the final weeks of President Uribe’s incumbency. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy
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El 7 de agosto de 2010, Juan Manuel Santos, Ministro de Defensa durante el gobierno saliente del Presidente Álvaro Uribe, fue investido como nuevo presidente de Colombia. Los temas de paz estuvieron en gran medida ausentes del debate público durante la campaña presidencial, pero emergieron inesperadamente en las últimas semanas de mandato del Presidente Uribe. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy
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With congressional and presidential elections respectively scheduled for March 14 and May 30, 2010, electoral politics in Colombia will shape the prospects for peace in the coming months. Peace does not appear on the government’s public policy agenda and it has yet to materialize as a campaign issue. Countries: Colombia, United States
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Bringing together the experiences and insights of more than thirty experienced and emerging authors, human rights activists, and peace practitioners from Colombia and abroad, Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War documents and analyzes the vast array of peace initiatives that have emerged in Colombia in recent years. Countries: Colombia
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USIP has supported over 300 products, projects, and activities related to human rights and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on the issue of human rights, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role human rights play in conflict and in peace. Issue Areas: Human Rights
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Over the past 15 years, USIP has supported over 90 projects related to women, conflict, and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on women, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role of women in conflict and in peace. |
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This USIPeace Briefing discusses the condition of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, their hostages and the potential direction of this situation. The briefing stresses insights that key figures in the issue raised in recent visits to Washington, DC. |
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Countries: Colombia
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Drawing from a series of conferences and events organized by USIP, this report examines the status of current peace initiatives in Colombia with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). It also assesses the paramilitary demobilization process and analyzes the role of local, national, and international third-party actors in each of these processes. The analysis reflects developments on the ground through the end of September 2007. |
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Colombia is poised at a crucial juncture - an opportunity to achieve lasting peace or, alternatively, to spiral into another cycle of violence. How can local, regional, and national actors help build upon peace initiatives to acheive a reconciled society in Colombia? |
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In the aftermath of 9/11, a shocked U.S. government and public asked, "Why do they hate us?" bewildered that the so-called Arab street views them—us—with extreme antipathy. Since that day in September, an urgent desire to quench this seething regional hostility has seized the government, hoping to mitigate or at least deflect any future terrorist attacks. |
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This report is based on material gathered during and after a delegation visit to Colombia from February 14 to 20, 2003, organized by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), to evaluate the effects of the internal armed conflict on Colombian civil society. |
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A Current Issues Briefing Co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Washington Office on Latin America. |
Events
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November 5, 2012
The U.S. Institute of Peace convened a panel discussion on the significant peacebuilding work underway by women in Colombia. This event featured a screening of the film, “The War We Are Living.” Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
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October 17, 2012
Today’s international conflicts typically involve multiple actors, interests, and drivers that have sparked long, violent histories. Ending these conflicts relies more and more on facilitated dialogue, a process in which a neutral third party helps a broad spectrum of conflicting parties overcome the many barriers to effective communication. Countries: Colombia, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Kosovo, Nepal, Nigeria
| Issue Areas: Mediation and Facilitation
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February 23, 2012
The United States Institute of Peace brought together a diverse group of speakers to discuss the roles of the international community, particularly the United Nations and regional institutions in the peace processes in Latin America. Countries: El Salvador, South America
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Mediation and Facilitation
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November 10, 2011
This event, co-sponsored by USIP, Refugees International, and the Refugee Council USA, analyzed the roots and consequences of the crisis, the frameworks that are emerging for its resolution, and the responsibilities of governments, civil society, and international donors as elaborated within the frame of the 2004 Mexico Plan of Action and Declaration. |
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July 19, 2011
On June 1st, the Colombian Congress passed the ‘Victims and Land Restitution Law’, which constitutes the first piece of legislation enacted to redress the suffering caused to millions of victims and internally displaced persons by the country’s internal conflict. The implementation of the law is likely to face enormous challenges, particularly regarding the safety and protection of victims and human rights defenders. USIP and partners convened a public event to discuss these issues. |
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February 16, 2011
How are the roles of "soldier" and "victim" defined by post-conflict programs? Most disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs are limited in the ways in which issues specific to female combatants are addressed. At this public event panelists examined the particular challenges faced by female ex-combatants in post-conflict environments, and ways in which reintegration agencies and post-conflict programs can integrate gender into their work. Countries: Colombia, Nepal, Sierra Leone
| Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Mediation and Facilitation, Rule of Law, Security Sector Reform/Governance
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January 26, 2011
Vice President Garzón is the first senior Colombian official to visit Washington since the inauguration of President Juan Manuel Santos in August 2010. Garzón will discuss new directions taken under the Santos government, in such areas as social and agrarian reform, peace, human rights, and foreign policy. Webcast: This event will be webcast live beginning at 4:30pm EST on January 26, 2011 through the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Countries: Colombia, South America
| Issue Areas: Human Rights, Mediation and Facilitation, Political Reform, Rule of Law
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May 7, 2010
Land is at the root of many violent conflicts and wars around the world. In addition to fighting over land and related natural resources, rural landholding systems often sustain patterns of inequality and widespread rural poverty that generate conflict. This event co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the InterAmerica Foundation will examine the challenges of land tenure and the efforts at land reform in Colombia and Bolivia--two Latin American countries where the gap between the rich and poor is among the greatest in the world. Countries: Bolivia, Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
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January 28, 2010
USIP cordially invites you to join us for a discussion with Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón. Vice President Santos will talk about the status of human rights in Colombia today and Colombia’s experience engaging in a new United Nations process, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
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November 23, 2009
With more than four million internally displaced Colombians- an average of more than a quarter of a million people annually in recent years- and almost half a million more forced to flee across national borders in search of safety, Colombia now ranks just behind Sudan in the numbers of people displaced by the conflict. Women, youth, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected by the conflict and by the displacement it causes. |
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November 12, 2009
Representatives of the Partners for Democratic Change's new Center in Colombia, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Due Process of Law Foundation will host a roundtable discussion about these mechanisms for democratizing justice at the community level. Discussion with invited experts will explore other experiences of community dispute resolution, as well as the challenges community justice mechanisms face and how they have been addressed. |
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July 31, 2009
Since the internal armed conflict in Guatemala ended in 1996, millions of dollars have been spent on transitional justice, but the state's efforts to create an effective justice system have largely failed -- obliging many Guatemalans to create their own coping mechanisms for war-time atrocities, and severely limiting the effectiveness of ongoing transitional justice efforts. Countries: Guatemala
| Issue Areas: Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
| Programs: Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship Program
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July 14, 2009
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July 13, 2009
Following President Álvaro Uribe’s visit to Washington in late June and his meeting with President Obama, Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) will offer his views on how the U.S. should approach Colombia and prospects for peace in the country’s decades-long internal conflict. Countries: Colombia
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April 1, 2009
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October 15, 2008
Public Event cosponsored by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Inter-American Dialogue |
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June 16, 2008
Issue Areas: Negotiation and Diplomacy
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May 14, 2008
Public Roundtable Event |
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March 31, 2008
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February 15, 2008
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November 27, 2007
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June 5, 2007
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May 23, 2007
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March 8, 2007
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October 5, 2006
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November 18, 2005
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November 19, 2005
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For decades, land issues have been a driver of violence, and also a cornerstone of peace initiatives in Colombia. Please join us to hear about a new initiative to organize peasant, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities around land issues and a peace agenda. POSTPONED: This event is postponed. Please check back on the website at a later time for more details. |