The Bridge Between the Americas: U.S.–Colombia Relations 

On October 6, 2026, the Alexander Hamilton Society at UT Austin, in partnership with the Clements Center, will host “The Bridge Between the Americas: U.S.–Colombia Relations,” with Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Acting Director and Senior Fellow of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Join us at 12:15 – 1:45 pm in Sid Richardson Hall (SRH), Room 3.122. Dr. Michael Dennis, Associate Professor of Practice at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, will moderate the discussion.

Christopher Hernandez-Roy will discuss the historic U.S.-Colombian relationship and what recent developments like Colombia’s change in leadership and the tragic earthquake mean for cooperation on transnational criminal groups, democracy, and great-power competition.

Garage parking is available for a fee at the Manor Garage and the San Jacinto Garage. Parking will not be validated.

Speaker Biography

Christopher Hernandez-Roy is Acting Director and Senior Fellow of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. His work includes research into democratic backsliding, transnational organized crime, geopolitics, and economic and national security issues in the Western Hemisphere. Christopher held senior leadership positions at the Organization of American States (OAS), first as the director of the Department of Public Security and later as the director of the Department of Sustainable Democracy and Special Missions. He also served as a senior political adviser to two secretaries general, during which time he documented the grave human rights abuses of dictatorship in Venezuela and co-led the OAS’s efforts to bring a case to the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity. He oversaw the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia and negotiated the establishment of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras.

Christopher was also intimately involved in the peaceful resolution of border disputes between Honduras and Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala, and Honduras and El Salvador. He worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police early in his career. He has been interviewed on CBS, CTV, and the CBC and cited in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among other media outlets. He has also testified on Capitol Hill. Christopher is an affiliated practitioner at James Madison University’s Department of Political Science. He holds a BA honors degree in history from Carleton University and an MPhil in international relations from the University of Cambridge.