Colombia Besieged: Political Violence and State Responsibility by The Washington Office on Latin America, 1989, 142 pp., $10 (paper). A concise examination of an estab- lished democracy, where state of seige is the norm. The veritable lock-out of the poor from the political system is being challenged by guerrilla armies and combative peasant and worker organizations. These in turn face the burgeoning power of paramilitary death squads, primarily responsible for Co- lombia having the world's highest homicide rate for a country not at war. "In strengthening those [security] forces [with increased military aid], Washington augments the authoritar- ian and arbitrary elements that lie be- neath the formal mechanisms of Co- lombian democracy and which directly threaten the beleaguered elements of civil participation in the Colombian political process." Colombia: Inside the Labyrinth by Jenny Pearce, Latin America Bureau, London, 1990, distributed by Monthly Review Press, 300 pp., $28 (cloth), $18 (paper), $15 for NACLA readers. An overview of the historical roots and current status of Colombian poli- tics. Pearce outlines the context of a two-party system which has monopo- lized government, forsaking nearly a quarter of the population to conditions of absolute poverty. And she examines in detail the attempts by the poor and excluded to effect change. Other topics include the cocaine economy, the for- mation of urban "civic" movements and the paramilitary death squads which, under the auspices of the army, have killed 8,000 grassroots activists since 1986. Harvest of Violence: The Maya Indi- ans and the Guatemalan Crisis ed. by Robert M. Carmack, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, 288 pp., $21.95 (cloth). More than a dozen North and Latin American anthropologists document the consequences of the Guatemalan mili- tary's genocidal policies on everyday life in several indigenous communities. David Stoll's "Evangelicals, Guerril- las and the Army" is especially instruc- tive on the confluence of domestic and international sources of violence. Tour- ism, the conditions of refugees and the destruction of Indian culture also re- ceive careful examination. Language and Politics by Noam Chomsky, ed. by Carlos P. Otero, Black Rose Books, 1989, 779 pp., $44.95 (cloth), $24.95 (paper). In this series of previously unpub- lished interviews spanning 20 years, Chomsky expounds on the intersection of language and radical politics. For those who know him only as media analyst and critic of foreign policy, this wide-ranging book offers glimpses of his studies on language, anarchist the- ory and critiques of radical politics as practiced since the 1960s. In Nicaragua by Joel Kovel. Free Association Books, 1988, 183 pp., $35 (cloth). A reflective memoir that explores the texture of everyday realities in war- torn Nicaragua. Based on several trips and an extended period as a volunteer psychiatrist, Kovel comes to recognize that "the mess of life lived in a revolu- tion may be truer to reality than the order of bourgeois democracy." Journeys Through the Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twen- tieth Century by Gerald Martin, Verso, 1989, pp 424, $19.95 (paper). This outstanding interpretive his- tory of Latin American narrative fiction concentrates on the parallels, relation- ships and developments between two key moments: The 1920s, considered the first great wave of Latin American fiction, and the 1960s when the "New Novel" of Social Realism and the more publicized Magical Realism appeared. The New Novel, which emerged after the Cuban Revolution, is seen as the consummation of the post-Mexican Revolution "Novel of the Land." In addition to placing Latin American lit- erature in its appropriate historical context, Martin provides key documents of Latin America's written narrative culture. Voice of the Amazon, directed and produced by Miranda Smith, (251 W. 30th St., Suite 16W, NY, NY 10001), 1989, 56 min. A compelling video on the life of martyred union-leader Chico Mendes and the rubber tappers' struggle to pre- serve a livelihood intimately connected to the survival of the forest. A good opportunity to see and hear the real Chico Mendes before Hollywood's version takes over.
