Walking Ghosts: Murder and Guerrilla Politics in Colombia

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During a peace accord with the Colombian government in the early 1980's, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group, established the Patriotic Union party (UP). The party, created after decades of civil war, was intended to be a means through which the FARC rebels could ingratiate themselves into the nation's political mainstream. However, the UP, like the peace process, would be short-lived. Acting out of fear and vengeance, right-wing paramilitary groups working closely with government officials and personnel assassinated thousands of UP members, decimating the party and extinguishing nascent efforts toward national harmony.

In Walking Ghosts Steven Dudley, a journalist who lived in Colombia for five years, expertly chronicles the life and death of the UP through stories of the politicians, drug kingpins, revolutionaries, and mercenaries who play key roles in Colombia's civil strife. Dudley maps out the complicated and murderous absurdity that is present-day Colombia, where daily life has devastating consequences: 30,000 murders per year; seventy-five political assassinations per week; ten kidnappings a day. As the conflict gets bloodier, international pressure and influence mounts: Worried about the FARC's strength and its role in the drug trade, the United States has recently sent close to two billion dollars in aid to help the Colombian government fight FARC.

Steven Dudley seeks to make sense of this conflict by focusing on the stories of key actors in the struggle, from the earliest days to the present. He has seen the civil war up close: dead bodies; paramilitaries; guerrillas; victims; and survivors. He has witnessed political parties grappling for power by any means necessary, and he's spoken to all sides and asked the difficult questions. Fast-paced and informative, Walking Ghosts presents a window into a conflict likely to shape the politics of this hemisphere for years to come. Also inlcludes maps.

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Walking Ghosts: Murder and Guerrilla Politics in Colombia Review

Excellent! This is hardearned and very readable reportage and history. Mr.Dudley is to be commended for physically braving the treacherous terrain of Colombian politics and the guerrilla conflict there. If life is as expendable in Colombia as it appears to be, the author must have had more than a few frightening experiences. The Colombian propensity for violence is exceeded only by the fatalism necessary to endure it and, perhaps, he made use of its dubious benefits.'Walking Ghosts' is very informative: it gives an objective history of the 'elimination' of the 'Union Patriotica' reform party by government supported paramilitary death squads as well as providing a knowledgeable background and perspective on the corrupt enterprises that are the present FARC, AUC, and Colombian government and military. Mr. Dudley weaves personal histories into larger themes, in particular following some doomed and shortlived careers of UP members while not neglecting some of the tough customers of their deadly opposition. The UP was unfortunately caught in the maw of Colombia's ongoing 'violencia' as the cocaine trade expanded and forced its dynamic on Colombian politics. The FARC is portrayed as less than honorable and only marginally less married to 'violencia' in the scheme of things. One is left with few illusions and, sadly, little hope for the future of Colombia; reconciliation and forgiveness would seem hard to come by after such viciousness. Perhaps the 'fatalismo' of the Colombians could serve them in eventually effecting a peace. Again, a very well written and engaging history of a misunderstood conflict that could well involve the US military (you! your son or daughter!) in the years ahead.

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