Killing Peace: Colombia's Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention

by Garry M. Leech

Over the past half-century, Colombia has been plagued by violence—its people caught in the middle of a civil conflict raging between the army, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, narco-traffickers, and U.S. anti-drug warriors. Killing Colombia’s Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention provides a timely and much-needed overview of the war that is ravaging Colombia including its root causes in the country’s gross social and economic inequalities. Though rarely in the headlines, Colombia is not only by far the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the Western Hemisphere, it is also the worst human rights catastrophe. The rampaging process of economic globalization is further brutalizing the war-weary Colombian people. Drawing from on-the-ground reporting as well as historical sources, Killing Peace addresses all aspects of the Colombian conflict, particularly the dangerous and expanding involvement of the United States as part of its drug war—and now the "war on terrorism."

116 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002