The Cooperativa de Trabajo Liberté and the Universidad de Antioquia announced their agreement live on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. It was thirty minutes over Zoom, with more than 140 connections from six countries, to confirm what the agreement had already set out in writing on August 4: the Building Citizen Security Diploma Program now holds triple certification.
The event began at 6 p.m. in Argentina, 4 p.m. in Colombia, and was broadcast from the Penitentiary Unit Nº15 in Batán. Speaking were Prof. Alexandra Fernández Rojas, dean of the Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas of the Universidad de Antioquia; Prof. Dr. Juan David Posada Segura, full professor at that school; Xavier Aguirreal, president of the cooperative; and Dra. Diana Márquez and Lic. Ricardo Augman, secretary and treasurer of the Board of Directors, who signed the agreement on behalf of Liberté.
Colombia, in the background
The event opened by naming the earthquake that had struck western Colombia the previous Monday, with serious damage in Cali, Manizales, Pereira, and Quibdó.
Our whole community stands with Colombia in these days, and especially with those joining us today from there. May this gathering also be a way of being close.
The chat kept that same spirit for the entire half hour. Greetings came in from Viedma, La Pampa, Tucumán, Mendoza, Salta, Mar del Plata, Chaco, and the Penitentiary Unit Nº30 in General Alvear; also from Medellín, Chile, Panama, Mexico, and Uruguay.
“Formalizing something we've been doing for a while”
Posada Segura was the first to speak, from Medellín.
This is the culmination of a long time doing many things together. You are a beacon in terms of the very good things that can be done from prison.
The Semillero de Penitenciario y Derechos Humanos he leads was where Liberté's first volunteers in Colombian territory came from. Toward the end, he returned to the regional framework: “it's wonderful that we're building things across all of Latin America, that we're working together, that the work of human rights is bringing us together.”
A school turning 200
Fernández Rojas took the floor to put the paperwork in perspective.
Sometimes a piece of paper may not be necessary to get things done and to move processes forward. But I do think it's important to give it that role, that meaning — to be able to set it down in this agreement between Liberté and the Universidad de Antioquia, so that it can help mark out a path forward.
The dean added something that wasn't in the signed text: she offered other capacities of her school — the gender-focused care center, criminal law faculty, programs for people with disabilities — for joint work going forward. And she left a date: the Facultad de Derecho turns 200 next year.
“It doesn't take money, it takes will”
Augman spoke as treasurer.
As Liberté's treasurer, I have to talk about money. We're very glad to be able to celebrate this partnership, which precisely doesn't require money. What it requires is will — wanting to walk alongside us, to help us, to promote research, to promote the exchange of knowledge, and also to believe that it's possible to do it.
Márquez went over the fine print: five years, with an option to extend; a solidarity outreach program sustained by the installed capacity of both institutions; and a 108-hour diploma program with seven live sessions and weekly work in the Aula Liberté, fully subsidized.
I hope that in these five years we will have done so many things that extending it becomes an absolutely natural continuation.
Academic coordination of the diploma program remains in the hands of Augman and Márquez. The certificates — all three of them — are issued by Universidad Liberté.
452 in the morning, 612 by the end
The closing brought the most concrete figure of the afternoon: at 10 a.m. that Wednesday, 452 people were enrolled in the diploma program; by the time the event ended, 612. The capacity is 1,000, and enrollment remains open.
The Building Citizen Security Diploma Program is free, virtual, and requires no prior studies. It is open to the whole community: health and social science professionals, court officers, lawyers, penitentiary staff, people in prison, people released from prison, victims of crime, and anyone interested in criminal enforcement from a human rights, restorative, and social-integration perspective.
Questions can be sent to formacion@universidadliberte.org or via WhatsApp to +54 9 223 678-9264.
