Carlo Antonio Arze, a program director for the International Youth Foundation, will be the final speaker in Tarleton’s 2011-2012 Symposium Speaker Lecture Series. He will discuss the challenges facing youth in Ciudad Juarez, one of Mexico’s most violent and crime-ridden communities.

Arze’s presentation will be Wednesday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nursing Building, Room 107. The lecture will be followed by a reception. Attendance slips will be available.

In his current project, “Youth: Work Mexico,” Arze is working with local civil society groups in Ciudad Juarez to create safe spaces for disadvantaged young people, strengthen and expand after-school and summer programs, and prepare Mexican youth for viable futures through self or salaried employment.

Since January 2007, over 50,000 people have died due to drug-related violence in Mexico, with the largest influx of violence taking place along the U.S.-Mexican border. It’s all related to drugs, drug cartels, drug trafficking and weapons going to Mexico from the U.S. For a young person in Cuidad Juarez it’s virtually impossible to avoid some sort of recruitment into the narco-gangs, Arze says.

Arze will discuss the genesis of the violence in Ciudad Juarez delving briefly into Mexico’s history and leading up to this critical period where drug-related activities are having significant social and economic impacts on key border towns such as Juarez and Tijuana.

Ciudad Juarez is the focus of the three-year initiative, with funds awarded from the United States Agency for International Development. The Foundation is expanding the program to Tijuana to work on the issue of youth employability in marginalized communities.

Arze joined the IYF in 2010 after working 20 years as a social development specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., as well as in Trinidad and Tobago, Paraguay and Brazil. He has also worked as a consultant with the United Nations Development Program and the Organization of American States.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master of arts degree in Latin American studies, both from the University of Texas at Austin. He also holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Arze was born in Bolivia and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.