A burgeoning WhatsApp campaign draws diverse leaders pushing to defend the interests of peace.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 / By: Fred Strasser
It began with a few supporters of Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement meeting at a Bogota cultural center. That gathering, in January of this year, soon led to the creation of a WhatsApp group—a platform to discuss how to defend the interests of peace amid concerns about the policies of the new government. Within months, scholars, union officials, artists, columnists, peace negotiators and politicians from across the political spectrum—minus the government’s Democratic Center—had flocked to the group. By mid-July, a spontaneous citizens movement of thousands of Colombian leaders was making its voice heard. Its objectives: to strengthen popular support for the previous government’s peace deal with the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and to support the peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN).
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