A leading text for more than 40 Years, Latin American Politics and Development has helped instructors and students stay abreast of current affairs in Latin America since 1979. Chapters written by leading authorities on each country in Latin America, something unique in the field and praised by reviewers. In addition to coverage of Middle, Central, and South America, includes coverage of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti in the Caribbean. Contextual Background: Chapters 1-7, written by the two editors, provide an essential foundation for understanding the context of Latin American politics and patterns of historical development. No obvious or overbearing political bias, which is unusual in texts on Latin American politics. The wide selection of countries included in Parts 2 and 3 allows students to explore more countries than typically covered. Writing throughout the book to be approachable and perfectly appropriate for an undergraduate audience. It is not laden with jargon, and concepts are explained well.

A leading text for more than 40 Years, Latin American Politics and Development has helped instructors and students stay abreast of current affairs in Latin America since 1979. Chapters written by leading authorities on each country in Latin America, something unique in the field and praised by reviewers. In addition to coverage of Middle, Central, and South America, includes coverage of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti in the Caribbean. Contextual Background: Chapters 1-7, written by the two editors, provide an essential foundation for understanding the context of Latin American politics and patterns of historical development. No obvious or overbearing political bias, which is unusual in texts on Latin American politics. The wide selection of countries included in Parts 2 and 3 allows students to explore more countries than typically covered. Writing throughout the book to be approachable and perfectly appropriate for an undergraduate audience. It is not laden with jargon, and concepts are explained well.

This book discusses the blend of Andean and Caribbean characteristics that define Colombia, particularly in its geography, demography, and social structure. It introduces readers to a complex and beautiful country that has been transformed from a fairly successful democracy to a near-pariah.

Although Colombia is the third-largest country in Latin America, it has been little known until recent years and does not fit many of the patterns common to other countries in the region. Competition between political parties, for example, has always been more important than class conflict; there is no tradition of military dictatorship; and corporatist structures are weak. Over the past decade, however, Colombia has gained notoriety, principally as the supplier of 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States. The second edition of this comprehensive country profile begins with a discussion of the blend of Andean and Caribbean characteristics that define Colombia, particularly in its geography, demography, and social structure. The author then presents a detailed political history that extends from before the arrival of the Spanish, including a portrait of early Amerindian populations, and continues through the turbulence of guerrilla, drug, and paramilitary violence in the 1980s and constitutional reforms of the 1990s. Harvey Kline argues that Colombia is now conscientiously attempting to alter historical patterns that have led it to play a key role in the international drug trade and to lead the world in the rate of homicides. A chapter on the economy offers a historical analysis of its evolution and examines economic and trade policies of recent presidents. Finally, the author looks at the international dimension of Colombian politics, especially its long-standing relationship with the United States and its increasingly important regional ties.

This succinct overview of the political factors that condition social and economic development in Latin America is the perfect core text in courses on politics, government, social change, and transitions to democracy throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

The new edition of this title offers an overview of the political factors that condition social and economic development in Latin America. It is intended for use by students in courses on politics, government, social change and transitions to democracy throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Colombia is the fourth largest country in South America and one of the continent s most populous nations. It has substantial oil reserves and is a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum, and coal, along with a significant number of natural resources. Colombia has also been ravaged by a decades-long violent conflict involving outlawed armed groups, drug cartels, and gross violations of human rights. Recently the country has made some progress towards improving security, and President Santos has pledged to continue to improve security by passing laws to strengthen the judicial system; a reform of the manner of distributing royalties paid by mining and petroleum companies; and a tougher law against corruption. The Historical Dictionary of Colombia covers the history of Colombia through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and a bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Colombia."

Chronicles the peace process negotiations between Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. In Between the Sword and the Wall: The Santos Peace Negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Harvey Kline, a noted expert on contemporary Colombian politics, brings to a close his multivolume chronicle of the incessant violence that has devastated Colombia's population, politics, and military for decades. This, his newest work on the subject, recounts and analyzes the negotiations between Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended with a peace agreement in 2016. The FARC insurgency began in 1964, and every Colombian president after 1980 unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a peace agreement with the group. Kline analyzes how the Santos administration was ultimately able to negotiate peace with the FARC. The agreement failed to receive the approval of the Colombian people in an October 2016 plebiscite, but a renegotiated version was later approved by the congress in the same year. Afterward, more than 7,000 rebels turned over their weapons to the UN mission in Colombia. The former combatants were then to be judged by a special court empowered to punish but not imprison those who had violated human rights. Throughout the book, Kline emphasizes the dual nature of the Santos negotiations, first with the FARC and second with the democratic opposition to the agreement led by former president Alvaro Uribe VElez. Kline provides readers with a well-researched analysis based on a variety of resources, including media articles and primary documents from the government, international organizations, and the FARC. He also conducted extensive interviews with twenty-eight government officials and Colombian experts from all ideological persuasions.

Studies the complex constraints and trade-offs the second administration of Colombian President Uribe (2006–2010) encountered as it attempted to resolve that nation’s violent Marxist insurrection and to have a more efficient judicial system Fighting Monsters in the Abyss offers a deeply insightful analysis of the efforts by the second administration of Colombian President �lvaro Uribe VÉlez (2006–2010) to resolve a decades-long Marxist insurgency in one of Latin America’s most important nations. Continuing work from his prior books about earlier Colombian presidents and yet written as a stand-alone study, Colombia expert Harvey F. Kline illuminates the surprising successes and setbacks in Uribe’s response to this existential threat.   In State Building and Conflict Resolution in Colombia, 1986–1994, Kline documented and explained the limited successes of Presidents Virgilio Barco and CÉsar Gaviria in putting down the revolutionaries while also confronting challenges from drug dealers and paramilitary groups. The following president AndrÉs Pastrana then boldly changed course and attempted resolution through negotiations, an effort whose failure Kline examines in Chronicle of a Failure Foretold. In his third book, Showing Teeth to the Dragons, Kline shows how in his first term President �lvaro Uribe VÉlez more successfully quelled the insurrection through a combination of negotiated demobilization of paramilitary groups and using US backing to mount more effective military campaigns.   Kline opens Fighting Monsters in the Abyss with a recap of Colombia’s complex political history, the development of Marxist rebels and paramilitary groups and their respective relationships to the narcotics trade, and the attempts of successive Colombian presidents to resolve the crisis. Kline next examines the ability of the Colombian government to reimpose rule in rebel-controlled territories as well as the challenges of administering justice. He recounts the difficulties in the enforcement of the landmark Law of Justice and Peace as well as two significant government scandals, that of the “false positives� (“falsos positivos�) in which innocent civilians were killed by the military to inflate the body counts of dead insurgents and a second scandal related to illegal wiretapping.   In tracing Uribe’s choices, strategies, successes, and failures, Kline also uses the example of Colombia to explore a dimension quite unique in the literature about state building: what happens when some members of a government resort to breaking rules or betraying their societies’ values in well-intentioned efforts to build a stronger state?

The civil war in Colombia has waxed and waned for sixty years, with shifting goals, programs, and tactics among the contending parties. Bursts of appalling violence are punctuated by uneasy truces, cease-fires, and attempts at reconciliation. Varieties of Marxism, the economics of narco-trafficking, peasant land hunger, poverty, and oppression mix together in a toxic stew that has claimed the uncounted lives of peasants, conscript soldiers, and those who simply got in the way. Kline argues that the first administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez marks a decisive break in this seemingly endless cycle. Not only were the levels of homicide and kidnapping dramatically reduced, but the state took the offensive against the insurgents, strengthening the armed forces which in turn demonstrated clear support for the president's policy. However, Kline believes that these changes, although dramatic, are not necessarily permanent, and discusses what challenges must be overcome for the permanent reduction of organized violence in this war-torn nation.