There Are No Dead Here

There Are No Dead Here is the untold story of three brave Colombians who stood up to the paramilitary groups that, starting in the mid-1990s, decimated the country in the name of counterinsurgency and drug profits. With the complicity of much of Colombia's military and political establishment and in a climate of widespread fear and denial, the paramilitaries massacred, raped, and tortured thousands, and seized the land of millions of peasants forced to flee their homes. The United States, more interested in the appearance of success in its own War on Drugs, largely ignored them. Few dared to confront them.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and five years on the ground in Colombia, Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno takes readers from the sweltering Medellin streets where criminal investigators constantly looked over their shoulders for assassins on motorcycles, through the countryside where paramilitaries wiped out entire towns in gruesome massacres, and into the corridors of the presidential palace in Colombia's capital, Bogota. Throughout, she tells the interconnected stories of three very different Colombians bound by their commitment to the truth. The first is the gregarious Jesus Maria Valle, whose prophetic warnings about the military's complicity with the paramilitaries got him killed in 1998. A decade later, Valle's friend, the shy prosecutor Ivan Velasquez, became an unlikely hero when his groundbreaking investigations landed a third of the country's congress in prison for conspiring with paramilitaries, and put him in the crosshairs of Colombia's then wildly popular president, US protege Alvaro Uribe. When Uribe's smear campaign against Velasquez threatened to bury the truth, the scrawny investigative journalist Ricardo Calderon exposed the lies, revealing that the paramilitaries' reach extended all the way into the presidency.

Thanks to the efforts of Valle, Velasquez, and Calderon, Colombians now know the truth about the brutality and corruption that swept like a lethal virus through the country's society and political system. And slowly, the country is breaking free from the paramilitaries' grip.

“"This well-researchedand beautifully told history explains how three civilians rewrote Colombianhistory."-- Booklist”

"A deeply informed account of Colombia's decades long civil war and the many figures who profited from it... An admirable work of journalism in the interest of human rights."--Kirkus Reviews
"A gripping and illuminating portrait of three far from ordinary Colombian whose courage, leadership, and perseverance continue to influence and inspire the fight for justice throughout Latin America. In a way, this story provides a roadmap of the hard, daring journey toward hope."--Francisco Goldman, author of The Interior Circuit
"In her masterful work, Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno unravels the intrigue, politics, and history between Colombia's government and its paramilitaries. Through her precise reporting and elegant prose, There Are No DeadHere paints a vivid and harrowing portrait of three brave individuals who, despite death threats and great risk to themselves and their families, expose some of their country's darkest secrets. This book is a must for anyone fascinated by Colombia's complex history."--Melissa del Bosque, author of Bloodlines
"Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno has written an important, gripping account of how three individuals heroically risked their lives to fight terror and corruption in their country. The violent dramas and acts of human bravery that are told in There Are No Dead Here unfold in Colombia, but also offer lucid insights into the fragility of civil society-and of rule of law-anywhere. At a time when the boundaries between tyranny and democracy, truth and falsehood, become increasingly opaque, McFarland's book offers a narrative that is unerring in its moral clarity."
--Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
"Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno has woven together a remarkable tale about drugs, violence, greed, corruption and -- far above all else -- human courage. A deep knowledge of Colombia and the people who live there is threaded through every page of the story, yet the book's relevance reaches far beyond that country's borders."--Monte Reel, author of Between Man and Beast
"The horrific violence in Colombia during the 1990s and 2000s is made painfully palpable in this account of three men who risked their lives to make public the atrocities committed by paramilitary forces and the Colombian government.... A necessarily grim narrative about the effects of government corruption in Colombia, with rays of hope to be found in Calderón's, Valle's, and Velásquez's impressive achievements against formidable odds."--Publishers Weekly
"This well-researched and beautifully told history explains how three civilians rewrote Colombian history."--Booklist

Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno is the co-director of the Human Rights Watch's US program. Previously, she served for five years as the organization's primary expert on Colombia's internal armed conflict. Born in Peru, she lived through the bombings of the vicious Maoist insurgent group Shining Path, followed by the authoritarianism of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. McFarland has conducted extensive advocacy before the governments of the United States, Canada, and European and Latin American countries; has authored and edited numerous Human Rights Watch reports; has testified before the Canadian Parliament and several times before the US Congress; and is a frequent voice in the media.

There Are No Dead Here is the untold story of three brave Colombians who stood up to the paramilitary groups that, starting in the mid-1990s, decimated the country in the name of counterinsurgency and drug profits. With the complicity of much of Colombia's military and political establishment and in a climate of widespread fear and denial, the paramilitaries massacred, raped, and tortured thousands, and seized the land of millions of peasants forced to flee their homes. The United States, more interested in the appearance of success in its own War on Drugs, largely ignored them. Few dared to confront them.Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and five years on the ground in Colombia, Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno takes readers from the sweltering Medellin streets where criminal investigators constantly looked over their shoulders for assassins on motorcycles, through the countryside where paramilitaries wiped out entire towns in gruesome massacres, and into the corridors of the presidential palace in Colombia's capital, Bogota. Throughout, she tells the interconnected stories of three very different Colombians bound by their commitment to the truth. The first is the gregarious Jesus Maria Valle, whose prophetic warnings about the military's complicity with the paramilitaries got him killed in 1998. A decade later, Valle's friend, the shy prosecutor Ivan Velasquez, became an unlikely hero when his groundbreaking investigations landed a third of the country's congress in prison for conspiring with paramilitaries, and put him in the crosshairs of Colombia's then wildly popular president, US protege Alvaro Uribe. When Uribe's smear campaign against Velasquez threatened to bury the truth, the scrawny investigative journalist Ricardo Calderon exposed the lies, revealing that the paramilitaries' reach extended all the way into the presidency.Thanks to the efforts of Valle, Velasquez, and Calderon, Colombians now know the truth about the brutality and corruption that swept like a lethal virus through the country's society and political system. And slowly, the country is breaking free from the paramilitaries' grip.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.