Customer Reviews

Bandits, Peasants, and Politics : The Case of "La Violencia" in Colombia (Translations from Latin America Series

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What is the difference between a "social" bandit and a mere "criminal" bandit? How do guerrilla organizations come into being? How do they gain legitimacy from their local populations?

For those looking to understand the period immediately following La Violencia (1948-1956) and how Colombia's disenfranchised peasants turned to collective violence in a desperate attempt to survive, this book is invaluable. Because of the book's respectability among Colombian scholars, this version was re-printed from its original spanish-language version of 1983. Sanchez and Meertens have been the foremost analysts of La Violencia and its immediate aftermath, and this should be required reading for serious scholars of the complex and important era between La Violencia and the National Front. Far from trying to impress their professors, these men ARE the professors...

Liberals were butchered. The military and police, on explicit orders from the Conservative Party government brutally killed and stole anything of value from all Liberal Party members. The government was absolutely corrupt and allowed a ghastly assault of murder, rape and torture. Consequently, the Liberal Party was forced to form a guerrilla resistance army. La Violencia is unquestionably the ugliest chapter in Colombian history and possible the greatest episode of genocide in Latin America. To that end, Gonzalo Sanchez and Donny Meerterns document the hatred that fueled the violence in Colombia. This book is gory and destroys the feeble argument that Colombia is the oldest democracy in Latin America.

Colombia's unique history of brutality and violence in the 1850's and 1860's. How can you make such an interesting topic unbearably boring? Write it like a student trying to impress his professor. I can learn much more from listening to my wife's stories about those days. [...]