Twelve authors, most of them Colombian, analyze the deadly drug-related violence wracking Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s and relate it directly to longstanding conflicts in the country. "Looking at the national evolution as a whole, one sees a predominance of forms of armed confrontation over civilized, political forms of interaction. This armed confrontation has advanced the process of national disintegration and fostered the steady deterioration of the narrow confines of Colombian democracy." A sobering review.