First published 2020
Colombia presents one of the Americas' most perplexing contradictions. The nation endures what Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez termed "a biblical holocaust" of human brutality. Drug cartels orchestrate massacres while political assassinations claim thirty lives daily during peak violence in the 1990s. Disappearances, sexual assault, and kidnapping terrorize civilians across generations. Yet this same country maintains one of the hemisphere's strongest democratic traditions, with only eleven years under military rule across two centuries of independence. Economic growth rates surpass most South American neighbors. Citizens report life satisfaction matching those in France. World-class universities and vibrant arts flourish amid the chaos. Mahoney connects historical patterns, cultural elements, and the relentless illegal drug trade to decode this enigma. He examines the forces that shaped Colombia's unique trajectory while fueling its remarkable creativity. As immigration debates intensify, grasping Colombia's complex evolution becomes increasingly urgent for understanding contemporary regional dynamics.
Genres: biography, history, political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: complex-society, contradictions
Setting: Colombia, South America
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
296 pages · Paperback · Oxford University Press
Content warnings: drug-use, violence