Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe spoke Monday at Oxford University in England.
According to Caracol, Uribe gave his talk “Colombia: From failing state to rising star” to more than 250 people, mostly students and academics. A small number of protesters, mostly English, gathered outside.
“We’re here to plant another side of Uribe’s face,” said one protester. “The face of repression.”
The Latin American Society at Oxford invited Uribe to speak in its series of talks by Latin American leaders to share perspectives from the region. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has also spoken at the university.
Uribe studied at Oxford in 1998, four years before he became president, as a Senior Associate Member of St. Anthony’s College after receiving a Simon Bolivar Scholarship from the British Council.
Uribe’s talk at Oxford was his first following a controversial guest lecturer appointment at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.