Writer returns to Colombia, where drug war is everywhere, nowhere

In 2000, the United States put in place Plan Colombia, its third largest military aid package after those given to Israel and Egypt. Colombia at that time had the highest rates worldwide for kidnapping, murder and other crimes. Left-wing rebels and right-wing paramilitary organizations were equally brutal, killing civilians with chain saws and arranging body parts in grotesque bouquets for surviving family members. Drugs and politics but mainly social inequalities were behind the violence. Today, human rights violations are still rampant, but the bloodshed has lessened significantly since the 2002 election of a hard-liner president.

“The only reality Colombia has known since its inception is war,” Silvana Paternostro writes in her new book, “My Colombian War,” an ultimately frustrating mix of memoir and reportage. Paternostro sees no peace in sight and believes that Colombians have their heads in the sand. Between 1999 and 2003, the Colombian-born journalist set out to “read Colombians the Riot Act,” to tell them that they all have “blood on their hands.” And to find out how, or if, she now fits into the country of her birth.”*

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