Product Description
In 2000, the National Police of Colombia reported that 25,660 people met violent deaths in that country. According to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, 170 civilians were killed in the first 18 days of 2001 in massacres and selective homicides related to that country's terrible civil war. By drawing on diverse sources of information, this work brings together the thoughts of historians, journalists, human rights activists, social scientists, military veterans, law enforcement officials, Congressional investigators, financial analysts, lawyers, Roman Catholic priests, peace organization spokespersons, and others about the volatile present-day situation in Colombia it explains the complexities of the drug-financed civil war and details Washington's concern that the Colombian conflict will destabilize the Andean region. Photographs and maps enhance the text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Sense of the human family in its suffering and beauty
This is a well researched scholarly work presented with deep human understanding. I knew little beyond the headlines about Colombia and its history. The author though opens our heart and mind to the people of Colombia and the suffering this beautiful country has endured. It is said, to understand oneself, one must be open to others. In this 21st century, we must be open and willing to strive to see and perceive, to hear and understand the people in the world around us. The human family living on our planet Earth.

Bert Ruiz's beautiful book, beautiful in so many ways, and written with such great intellectual and sensitive insight, helps us to realize this.

Very good primer marred by numerous language gaffes
Mr. Ruiz is to be commended for producing a thoughtful and engaging overview of contemporary Colombia and the book is the best of several I've read so far in terms of providing a basic orientation to this conflicted land.Unfortunately, the text is marred by numerous language errors, typos and editing gaffes.There seemed to be a problem on every other page; this creates an unacceptably high annoyance level for any attentive reader.This is a great shame, because apart from these easily correctible problems, the work as a whole shines.

Understand modern Colombia better
Ruiz has done a great service for anyone wanting to understand modern Colombia.I was pulled in to the narrative in the first two paragraphs and finished the 261 page book within two weeks.In short, this is my first pick for a book dealing with the history and politics of modern Colombia.

Ruiz winds his narrative from recent events back to those of earlier in the 20th century, providing a good foundation for understanding why Colombia exists as it does.His chapter, "The Genesis of Violence" explains the events leading up to La Violencia better than any other book I've read.His recounting of the rise of Gaitán, and his assassination on April 9, 1948 is brilliant, although the events themselves are heart-breaking.

He helped me better understand the politics of the guerrilla movement, the military, and the paramilitary death squads.Ruiz also includes a whole chapter on the United States relationship to Colombia over the years, which was eye-opening for me.

Very good description of current issues and actors...
This is an excellent source of information about the actors at the forefront of the Colombian civil conflict.It is convincingly detailed and leaves the reader with a sense of being able to truly understand the actual feelings and motivations behind the actions of the government officials, the paramilitary groups, and the guerrillas.Its only downfall is that it is not particularly theoretical - which means that academics will find it to be rich in empirical detail but not particularly helpful in placing the complex assemblage of actors within a broader theoretical framework that includes political institutions, economic forces, and social movements.On the other hand, both academics and non-academics will appreciate its straight-forward approach.This is one of the most clearly written and meticulously detailed books on the contemporary conflict, and the historical sections provide a good introduction to the main themes in Colombia's history.I recommend this book.

A lucid account of the war in Colombia
I would like to warmly reccommend anyone interested in the modern historical developments that led up to the current situation in Colombia to read this book. Ruiz clearly sets out the background without losing momentum, bringing the reader into the politcal and military quagmire of today that Colombia is trying to escape. This was the first book I read on Colombia and I was not dissapointed. The book manages to span a wide range of topics, from politics and international terrorism to drug war and human rights and still maintain focus. For an in-depth but incredibly accessible account of that country's plight, I can think of no better book. ... Read more

Product Description
The artifacts that remain today from ancient Columbian civilizations reveal a remarkable people-who built homes that could withstand the elements in the world's wettest rain forest, carved monumental statues of their ancient ancestors and sacred spirits, and tantalized the western world with the beauty of their golden objects set with the finest emeralds. These artifacts serve not only as a testimony of the great achievements of cultures that disappeared long ago, but as patterns and inspirations for those who still carry on these craft traditions in the tropical rain forests or snow-capped mountains of what is today Columbia.

This book presents artifacts-or artefactos-from everyday life, objects that have accompanied Columbian people through the centuries, both in their earthly and spiritual activities. In both English and Spanish, the word artifact means, literally, "made with skill or art." Although all worthy of museums and galleries, these are not just exhibition pieces, nor are their makers all members of a separate artisan class. There is no Columbian home, however humble, that does not have a handmade broom, stool, basket, textile, or rustic furniture; nor is there a single Amazon Indian who cannot quickly piece together a basket from leaves found in the jungle.

Many of the crafts made today still retain a significance beyond the strictly utilitarian, from the basket holder whose hourglass shape is a fertility symbol to the stool carved by a young man as a sign of his goldwork to basketry, weaving to pottery-are an astounding body of work and provide a lesson in how people use their natural environment-and their hands-to create splendid objects and surrounds.
... Read more

Product Description

What visitor to Mexico City, unaware of its pre-Hispanic history, could imagine that right under a Christian Church may still lie the remains of the sinister tzompantli, the Aztecs' altar of skulls? Professor Jorge Hardoy poses this question and many more in his comprehensive summary of the ancient cities where Latin America's peoples lived before the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century.

Because Aztec Tenochtitlan, today Mexico City, and Inca Cuzco represent the culmination of the two most advanced civilizations encountered by the Spainsh conquistadors, the author explores these cities end-to-end. He also studies such older civic memorial centers as Teotichuacan, Tula, Monte Alban, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Tikal, Palenque, Tiahuanaco, Chan Chan, Pachacamac, Machu Picchu, and lesser know sites, most virtually, if not totally, abandoned centuries before the Conquest. Such inclusive coverage makes for a lively discussion of some fifteen hundred years of urban life as immortalized in the architecture, art, and crafts of long vanished civilizations. There is an extensive bibliography, many photographs, maps, charts and city plans showing urban layouts of temples, which tell much about the life of the inhabitants.

His book shows that while new findings come to light each year, so much buried history lies waiting to be found that archaology will always be an ever unfolding drama.

This book was first published in 1973.

Product Description
Most of what we know about Spain's New World encounters with native peoples comes from contacts in the mineral-rich areas of Mexico and Peru where Indians living in large, complex state systems were easily adapted to Spain's tribute needs. This book looks at an entirely different areathe economically marginal Pasto region in the southern Colombian Andes. This is the first detailed ethnohistory of Spain's conquest of peoples who were not easily incorporated into the imperial order. In the Andean region of Colombia, economies based on hunting and gathering and small-scale agriculture dominated; local chiefdoms exercised extensive political control. Spanish rule disrupted the centuries-old cultural, economic, environmental systems of the Pastos, Quillacingas, and Abads. It also provoked various forms of resistance among the drastically reduced native population against overzealous local elites who abused Indian workers by unrealistic labor and tribute demands. ... Read more

Product Description
A journalist and eyewitness investigates the 1985 guerilla insurgency and bloody military coup that ended Colombian democracy and marked a break with the country's previous history, through interviews with dozens of key participants. National ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Palace of Justice, My Review
I rate this book very highly. The book and the seller met all my expectations with regard to condition of the book and prompt delivery of the same

I'm from the Columbian Army and I'm here to help
This book pretty much just made me mad.The terrorist group M-19 attempted to take government workers hostage in order to get political consideration.The first time(s) is worked.The "macho" new President decided not to negotiate and a large number (unknown) of the hostages were killed.From the few witnesses left, the terrorists killed some soldiers, but no hostages.The un-identified bodies were buried and had acid poured on their graves to prevent later identification.Fortunately for the Government, an earthquake provided hundreds more bodies to dump over the killed hostages further hindering later identification.

Bottom line, I ain't ever going to Columbia and thank GOD they don't run our police forces.The President allowed the military to kill all of the terrorists and all of the hostages that couldn't get away from the army.

The author is a good investigator and writer.She's also VERY lucky to be here.

The bestbook on this elusive theme...
This book is truly the most complete investigation on those two intense and definitive days in recent Colombian history. Told with gripping narrative, it is hard to put down: it took me only three days to read. As a Colombian, for me it is also a source of profound sadness, because the book, through its tale, illustrates all the workings of colombian politics, with all its lies, manipulations, self-interests, and lack of any decent statemanship and generosity. Except for a few personalities, all the actors in this drama show an inmense human mediocrity, from the president of the nation on down. Also, it shows the brutality of an armed force that has always been distinguishedby its corruption and incompetence in the field of battle. This book should be mandatory reading for anybody interested in Colombian politics, history and society.

A Brutal Story
"The Palace of Justice" is a brutal story of life in Colombia.Carrigan is a tier-one journalist who lived in Colombia and used many first hand accounts to expose the flaws in the government's coverup.

Mesmerizing
.
This is an utterly brilliant book.
.
Ana Carrigan provides a meticulously researched and detailed
account of a climactic event in the ongoing Colombian violence.
The significance of this saga is not in its direct effects but
the insight into the workings and priorities of the Colombian
government and military revealed to us by this moment of crisis.
The author gives the critical background to the saga and covers
in detail the political maneuvering and subsequent
Orwellian "official explanation" of what really happened.
.
Read this book. If it's out-of-print, harangue the publisher. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the untold story about the mini-war waged by the Allies in WWII, to prevent the Axis from acquiring platinum. Colombian platium, with its high-percentage of iridium was the most sought after metal in the German war effort.

Allied powers created the Bureau of Economic Warfare (BEW) to thwart the Axis. This book is not about any one man or one agency, but the combined efforts to interdict the flow of platinum from Colombia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely Intriguing
Americans, by and large, have a misconception that the FBI is strictly a domestic law enforcement agency allowed only to operate within the United States. Today, in a post 9/11 world, we know that the FBI operates internationally with permission from host countries and special Congressional approval.But it is absolutely fascinating to learn from "Declassified" how FBI agents operated outside the US as counterintelligence agents (spies) during WWII.This is just one aspect of the book.

Another treasure is the look into the very powerful - but historically very obscure - US Bureau of Economic Warfare.Their actions before and during the war sought to prevent Nazis from obtaining raw materials, such as platinum for electronics and atomic research. As the book cover suggests, Nazi Germany turned the resource rich country of Columbia, South America into a strategic smuggling operation. From Mr. Allen's work, one realizes how incredibly relevant the topic is in today's fight against terrorism and preventing rogue nations such as Iran from obtaining materials to develop nuclear weapons.

What book on WWII would be complete without a look at US bureaucrats? In "Declassified" we get a peek at the WWII-era US State Department and its management of the Lend-Lease Act which provided, and sometimes didn't provide, needed materials for the Allied war machine.Some things never change.

For anyone knowledgeable about today's Columbia of corruption and institutionalized drug cartels, it is, by comparison,a look at a shining moment in the history of a once promising South American country.

Whether intentional or not, Mr. Allen's subject matter treatment reveals as much about our own world today as it does about this little known piece of WWII history.Since virtually no other writings exist regarding this facet of WWII,that alone makes this book seriously intriguing. ... Read more

Product Description
Bernard Lafayette Jr., associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and a Kingian nonviolence scholar, puts it simply: "Governor Guillermo is the Martin Luther King Jr. of Colombia." Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, who cofounded the Community of the Peace People in Northern Ireland, says that "Governor Gaviria's writings reveal a brave and deeply spiritual man, whose compassionate heart and fine mind were not corrupted by suffering but deepened to an all-encompassing unconditional love of everyone, including his captors." Glenn D. Paige, Author of Nonkilling Global Political Science, observes that the book, "offering both a love story and a record of his captivity and vision, shows why he is as distinctively important for the nonviolent human future as Gandhi and King." The dramatic rescue and release of Colombia hostage Ingrid Betancourt on July 2, 2008, riveted the world's attention. Another kidnapping victim that year was the governor of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria Correa.Little known is his embrace of nonviolence as a political strategy that led to his capture by the FARC and his death during a failed rescue attempt May 5, 2003. The book is being published on the seventh anniversary of his death ... Read more

Product Description
The civil war in Colombia has waxed and waned with shifting goals, programs, and tactics among the contending parties and with bursts of appalling violence punctuated by uneasy truces, cease-fires, and attempts at reconciliation. Varieties of Marxism, the economics of narco-trafficking, peasant land hunger, poverty, and oppression mix together in a toxic stew that has claimed uncounted lives of (most often) peasants, conscript soldiers, and people who just got in the way. Hope for resolution of this conflict is usually confined to dreamers and millenialists of various persuasions, but occasionally an attempt is made at a breakthrough in the military stalemate between the government and the Marxist groups. One of the most promising of such attempts was made by new Colombian President Andres Pastrana at a time when the main rebel groups seemed receptive to serious dialogue. This book is an account of that effort at peace, accompanied at the outset by domestic and international support and hope, and yet doomed like so many others to eventual failure.Through interviews with many of the actors in this drama, as well as an understanding of the various interest groups and economic forces at work in Colombia, Dr. Kline charts the progress and ultimate failure of this effort, and thereby hopes to increase understanding of the causes of its lack of success. The importance of resolution of the conflict to the region and to ordinary citizens of this troubled land cannot be overstated. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Wilson Bulletin, published by Wilson Ornithological Society on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 4976 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: FRUGIVORY OF SALVIN'S CURASSOW IN A RAINFOREST OF THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON.
Author: Marcela Santamaria
Publication: Wilson Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: Wilson Ornithological Society
Volume: 112Issue: 4Page: 473

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description

This wide-ranging book looks at many aspects of Colombia’s recent economic history, from foreign trade to fiscal policy. The editors have assembled a who’s who of Colombian economic thinkers, including Adolfo Meisel, Roberto Junguito, and Salomón Kalmanovitz. They offer information about the economy, socio-economic outcomes, and public policy, while understanding both Colombian development and long-range economic issues in a dynamic and comprehensive fashion.

This book builds on the economic history of Colombia, including the work of 19th-century economic scholars Aníbal Galindo, Lino Pombo, and Salvador Camacho Roldán, who made estimates of per capita income in the 1860s. Because the last decade has witnessed a renewal of interest in the subject, the editors provide a synthesis of foundational research while clarifying what we know and where the frontiers of research are.

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
David Sowell traces the history of artisan labor organizations in Bogotá and examines long-term political activity of Colombian artisans in the century after independence. Relying on contemporary newspapers, political handouts, broadsides, and public petitions, Sowell analyzes the economic, social, and political history of the capital's artisan class, a middling social sector with very significant social and political strengths. This is the first study in English of nineteenth-century Latin American artisans and one of the few treatments that spans the whole of nineteenth-century Colombian history.

The rise and late decline of artisan class political activity coincided the Colombia's integration into the world market. Initially petitioning for tariff protection, Bogotá's craftsmen in time mobilized to address numerous issues, including industrial education, internal trade order, credit, and better health and educational facilities. Sowell traces the transformation of Colombia's economy and the (mainly negative) effects its evolution had on bogotano artisans. By the end of the nineteenth century, the artisans class was fragmented, their labor leadership replaced by workers associated with industrial production, transportation systems, and the production of coffee. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An important road map of the labor movement in Colombia
"The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogota, 1832 - 1919," by David Sowell is an important road map of the political and economic rise and fall of the artisan movement in Bogota.Sowell relies on newspapers, public petitions and hard to find political handouts to offer a vivid insight to the strategy and mobilization of early labor organizations in Colombia.The author also provides a strong examination of the struggle for political power among members of the Conservative and Liberal parties.Moreover, the author documents how partisan competition contributed to endemic political violence and repeated conflicts at the local, regional, and national levels.

Sowell also features the work of scholars Charles W. Bergquist and Frank Safford in this text to explain long-term economic trends and the impact of institutional power networks.Overall the author explores early constitutional reforms and the origin of clientel relationships within the Colombian two-party political system. The liberalization of the economy united artisans.However, industrialization led to urban violence and the downfall of the artisans as a strong political voice in Colombia, according to the author.

The lives and organized activities of Colombian artisans have both historical and contemporary importance.Take for instance the life of early labor organizer Ambrosio Lopez, born in 1809 to Jeronimo Lopez and Rosa Pinzon.Jeronimo was a tailor in the employ of the viceroy and Rosa made "chica," a maize-based low-alcohol veverage.Ambrosio's son Pedro, became an important banker and his grandson, Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo served as president of the Republic of Colombia in the 1930's.Another important aspect of this book is the examination of how extreme partisan competition lead to many bloody civil wars in Colombia.

Bert Ruiz ... Read more

Product Description
Provides a detailed account of events in Colombian agriculture in the 1990s, analyzing the consequences of recent free-market policy reforms and illustrating how macroeconomic developments are critical in determining the performance of agriculture. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Wilson Bulletin, published by Wilson Ornithological Society on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3013 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: NESTING RECORDS OF FIVE ANTBIRD SPECIES FROM THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON.
Author: Carlos Daniel Cadena
Publication: Wilson Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: Wilson Ornithological Society
Volume: 112Issue: 3Page: 313

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive
This book is packed with information.James William Park does an exhausting study of Rafael Núñez.Moreover, he explains in great detail how regional differences destroyed attempts for national unity.Still and all, this book is dry.Facts are compressed and do not always come to life.

One feature I found valuable is the description of Colombia's many civil wars.Although the text does not go into great detail exploring the events leading to the "War of the Supremos" from 1839 to 1842 it does an outstanding job of defining the political differences that lead to the civil war of 1860 - 1862, the civil war of 1876 - 1877 and the civil war of 1884 - 1885.

This well-researched text also has excellent charts with data on government federal expenditures, federal income, income from customs and valuable regional population statistics.Park includes an excellent protrayal of the many problems between the Liberal and Conservative parties.He also defines the many problems implementing national railroads, a national education policy and negotiating the delicate relationship with the Catholic Church.

Any serious student of Colombian - American affairs must read this book to understand the long government pattern of ignoring the needs of citizens in the interior of the nation in favor of those in the big cities.Overall, Park explains how Rafael Núñez overcomes many political and personal obstacles to unite Colombia under one flag. ... Read more