Respect for U.S. Institute of Peace Colombia conference Nov. 23, 2009

I believe I am ready to present my letter to President Obama including my previous recommendations for support for President Uribe's 2009 call for peace talks with FARC and respect for past Venezuelan mediation in Colombia. On November 23, 2009 I visited the U.S. Institute for Peace and briefly attended the conference, Displacement in Colombia: Promoting Accountability and Gender Responsiveness. It featured a fine book by the organizer, Virginia Bouvier, Building Peace in a Time of War, with descriptions of peace processes in Colombia and excellent sensitivity to women's rights. Craig Zelizer talked about use of this network and I value William Montoya's work in starting it: it is best to network and inform other students and network users of conferences on Colombia where sometimes U.S. Institute of Peace conferences are free and open to the public. I tell Mr. Montoya I believe in deference to or consultations to regional experts on Latin America when I do research on my worldwide international security policy specialization at Columbia University: I concluded research in 2009 that I started for Professor Susan Nan in 2005. I also want Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama to pay attention to past winner President Arias of Costa Rica for his 1980's work on the Contadora peace process in Central America where Colombia's FARC could gain hope after Mr. Arias supported peace between El Salvador's government and the FDR-FMLN. Why am I the only commenter on Colombia? I still hope you're pleased I entered the first comment on your Colombia site like I entered the first comment on the Institute for Policy Studies site: apathy is bad and I hope you enter more comments.