22 year old Leonardo Jimenez Garcia coordinates the program on Objection and Antimilitarism for the Medellín, Colombia based Red Juvenil (Youth Network). The Red Juvenil promotes nonviolence, conscientious objection and antimilitarism to youth in a country that has been ravaged by a civil war for half a century.

Leonardo became a youth activist in his neighborhood at the age of 14, and learned about the Red Juvenil in 1998 when he started to promote the network's project in different barrios of Medellín. He calls himself a nonviolence-activist who promotes nonviolence as a philosophy and life practice.

After finishing high school he faced being drafted into the Colombian army, but his understanding of nonviolence and antimilitarism made him declare himself conscientious objector. Although it has brought him many difficulties he remains firm in this decision.

In 2000 Leonardo decided to get more deeply involved with the Red Juvenil and founded a collective for conscientious objection. Two years later he became the coordinator of a new Red Juvenil program that was to give structure and political direction to the work of promoting Objection and Antimilitarism.

Leonardo has traveled to Germany for a youth exchange combined with a speaking tour of various cities and he is currently promoting a campaign about active nonviolence and resistance to the war in five Colombian cities. He designs and gives workshops and trainer's trainings for cooperative learning, nonviolence, conscientious objection, civil disobedience and antimilitarism.