Volume 33, Number 18 · November 20, 1986
Murderous Colombia
By E.J. Hobsbawm
WORKS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Human Rights in Colombia as President Barco Begins
An Americas Watch Report
68 pp., $7.00 (paper)
Los años del tropel: Relatos de la violencia
by Alfredo Molano
Fondo Editorial CEREC-CINEP (Bogotá), 292 pp.
Estado y subversión en Colombia: La violencia en el Quindío Años 50
by Carlos Miguel Ortiz Sarmiento
Fondo Editorial CEREC (Bogotá), 463 pp.
Pasado y presente de la Violencia en Colombia
edited by Gonzalo Sanchez, edited by Ricardo Peñaranda
Fondo Editorial CEREC (Bogotá), 413 pp.
La paz, la violencia: testigos de excepción. Hechos ye testimonios sobre 40 años de violencia y paz que vuelven a ser hoy de palpitante actualidad
by Arturo Alape
Planeta (Bogotá), 620 pp.
Cese el fuego: Una historia politica de las FARC
by Jacobo Arenas
Oveja Negra (Bogotá), 172 pp.
Colonización, coca y guerrilla
by Jaime Jaramillo, by Leonidas Mora, by Fernando Cubides
Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá), 239 pp.
Bandoleros, gamonales y campesinos: el caso de la Violencia en Colombia
by Gonzalo Sanchez, by Donny Meertens
El Ancora (Bogotá), 262 pp.
La Guerra por la paz
by Enrique Santos Calderon, prologue by Gabriel García Márquez
Fondo Editorial CEREC (Bogotá), 324 pp.
Historia de una traición
by Laura Restrepo, with the assistance of Camilo Gonzalez
Plaza & Janes Editores (Bogotá), 255 pp.
Narcotrafico imperio de la cocaina
by Mario Arango, by Jorge Child
Editorial Percepción (Medellín), 318 pp.
The Fruit Palace
by Charles Nicholl
St. Martin's, 307 pp., $16.95
About the only thing that most non-Colombians know about the third largest country in Latin America, and virtually the least known, is that it supplies cocaine and the novels of Gabriel García Márquez. García Márquez is indeed a marvelous guide to his extraordinary country, but not a good introduction to it. Only those who have been there know how much of what reads like fantasy is actually close to Colombian reality. The drug traffic is also, unfortunately, an important element in it, though one that authoritative Colombians are not anxious to discuss much. It must also be admitted that they are a good deal more relaxed about it than their North American opposite numbers. This is probably because, authoritative or not, Colombians today are chiefly worried about the rising tide of murder.
Review, 4779 words
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