Walking Ghosts: Murder and Guerrilla Politics in Colombia - Hardcover

"A brave, meticulously researched story of missed opportunities, treachery and revenge, and the burden of history on a country that has rarely known peace. Steve Dudley has visited more of Colombia's harsh venues, and sat patiently in them longer than any other foreign journalist, to understand the forces that have propelled Colombia's conflict for decades and decades. What he has produced is a passionate narrative, rich with the characters and landscape of a remarkable country, that explains why Colombia's confounding war continues to resist all attempts to stop it.." -Scott Wilson, Andean bureau chief of the "Washington Post "Steven Dudley's haunting account of the rise and blood-soaked fall of Colombia's Patriotic Union (Union Patriotica) party is essential reading for anyone who wants to fully understand the causes of Latin America's longest-running civil war. A brave and unflinching book ." -Joseph Contreras, Latin America Regional Editor, Newsweek "This insightful look into the Colombian insurgency will be valuable for scholars, policy analysts, and citizens who need to know about the next major battlefield. It's drugs, civil war, class struggle, and more U.S. intervention woven together into a very readable story ." -Saul Landau, author of "The Pre-Emptive Empire: A Guide to Bush's Kingdom and "The Business of America: How Consumers Have Replaced Citizens and How We Can Reverse the Trend "With verve and compassion, Dudley tells the riveting story of a political genocide that has cost Colombia thousands of lives. No one else has written this history so well and with so much first-hand access to its protagonists. It is a painful, complex, funny, andprovocative read, and goes to the heart of how modern Colombia really works ." -Robin Kirk, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch-Americas Division and author of "More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs, and America's War in Colombia "Through honest, vivid, and scrupulous reporting, Dudley gives a superb history of the Patriotic Union in the mid-1980s, which continues to haunt the country's politics. His sensitive account is a significant contribution to understanding the Colombian enigma, and should be required reading for policymakers convinced they have all the answers to help produce an enduring peace ." -Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue Institute

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.