Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia

In Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia, Jasmin Hristov examines the complexities, dynamics, and contradictions of present-day armed conflict in Colombia. She conducts an in-depth inquiry into the restructuring of the state's coercive apparatus and the phenomenon of paramilitarism by looking at its military, political, and legal dimensions.

Documenting the penetration of major state institutions by right-wing armed groups and the persistence of human rights violations against social movements and sectors of the low-income population, Blood and Capital raises crucial questions about the promised dismantling of paramilitarism and the validity of the so-called demobilization of paramilitary groups, both of which have been widely considered by North American and some European governments as proof of current Colombian president Álvaro Uribe's advances in the wars on terror and drugs.

What People Are Saying

"Hristov presents a disturbing picture of a nation that exercises almost total control over the daily lives of its citizens–a situation that has resulted in one of the world’s highest populations of forcibly displaced people, a 65% poverty rate (with some 10 million homeless), and a police apparatus in which torture is the norm…Copies of Blood and Capital certainly belong on the Prime Minister’s reading list, and would no doubt be helpful to those Canadian business executives who remain clueless about (or willfully blind to) the human costs of high returns on Colombian investment." Quill & Quire

"In meticulous detail, Hristov shows how the super-rich benefit from state repression and how the violators of human rights have essentially become immune from any consequences for their actions. If death squads are truly to be abolished in Colombia, we must look honestly at how and why they exist today. Hristov’s new book is a powerful tool for exposing who truly calls the shots." Hans Bennett, www.upsidedownworld.org

"Serves a vital role in debunking the propaganda and misinformation that so often circulates in the English-language media… Hristov powerfully refutes attempts to oversimplify the conflict in Colombia and its justification as part of the 'war on terror.'" H-Net Reviews

"Not merely an insightful backgrounder and a compelling account of contemporary events…one of its greater virtues is the manner and extent to which it demystifies, discredits and debunks the standard version of Colombia’s structural troubles." The Innovation Journal

"This original and illuminating book will be essential reading for students and scholars seeking to better understand the roots of extreme violence in Colombia and why it has been so difficult to end the widespread killings, abductions and use of torture in that country." Alan Simmons, Senior Scholar, Department of Sociology, and Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, York University

"Provide[s] an exceedingly well-written and very readable non-academic treatment that is accessible to any interested or informed reader…The book deserves to be widely distributed and needs to be carefully read." Socialist Studies

A searing indictment of accumulation at the expense of indigenous peoples, peasants, Afro-Colombians, and the working poor…This powerful book is essential reading for all who wish to understand contemporary Colombia, and for all who care about human rights and global justice." David McNally, Professor of Political Science, York University and author of Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism

"Hristov presents a disturbing picture of a nation that exercises almost total control over the daily lives of its citizens–a situation that has resulted in one of the world’s highest populations of forcibly displaced people, a 65% poverty rate (with some 10 million homeless), and a police apparatus in which torture is the norm…Copies of Blood and Capital certainly belong on the Prime Minister’s reading list, and would no doubt be helpful to those Canadian business executives who remain clueless about (or willfully blind to) the human costs of high returns on Colombian investment." Quill & Quire

About the Author

Jasmin Hristov is an advanced PhD candidate in sociology at York University, Toronto. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Journal of Peasant Studies, Social Justice, and Latin American Perspectives.

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