Open meeting with Heinz Dieterich Steffan:

Political Transformation in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia:
Lessons of War and Peace

Time: 13:00-16:00
Venue: Auditorium Egget, Studentsenteret

Latin American countries, and particularly South American countries, are currently going through processes of fundamental social and political change.

The Norwegian media coverage of these important processes is quite weak and selective. Only separate incidents of violence tend to hit the headlines, such as Colombia's bombing of a FARC guerrilla camp within Ecuador's boundaries in March this year, or the violence in the eastern provinces of Bolivia in September.

There is little focus on the larger processes of change within these countries or on how the problems of violence have been solved through mechanisms of regional cooperation. This will be the focus of this seminar with Heinz Dieterich Steffan.

Heinz Dieterich Steffan is Professor in Sociology and Methodology at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City. He has published more than 30 books and has frequently commented on regional political processes in newspapers and websites. One of his most well-known books is El Socialismo del Siglo Veintiuno (2000) (The Socialism of the 21st Century). Professor Steffan has had frequent contacts with Latin-American leaders like President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, President Evo Morales in Bolivia, President Rafael Correa in Ecuador