From 9-12 August, Combertty Rodriguez, Gabriela Sancho, Verónica Leitón and Gabriel Castro from the EI Latin-America (EILA) office attended the Latin America Regional Committee meeting and the regional Presidents and General Secretaries’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They collaborated with attendees in identifying work pending in the region and urgent actions necessitated by the region’s political changes.
From 29-31 August, they attended a Pedagogical Movement meeting with the sub-regional delegation from Central America, México and Dominican Republic in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Pedagogical Movement was assessed and new objectives and commitments formulated for the different countries.
In Colombia, the peace treaty between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), recently signed by President Santos and the FARC leadership, will be subjected to a national referendum on 2 October. On 5 September, in Bogota, the Federación Colombiana de Educadores(FECODE) launched a national campaign, “FECODE dice SI a la Paz”, for a Yes vote in support of the peace agreement. The union is also advocating that schools in Colombia are declared "territories of peace". Education unions from many Latin American countries attended the launch to show their support for the peace treaty. Also present was EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen, who underlined the importance of empowering teachers and strengthening the public school system which is in poor condition in Colombia. The EI delegation met Colombian President Santos, who gave his assurance that his government would give top priority to investing in children and improving accessibility and quality of public education. At end-September, EIAL President Hugo Yaski announced that EI Latin American affiliates will mobilise the Colombian communities in their countries in support of the Yes vote.