Our guerrillas, our sidewalks

by Braun, Herbert

In the pre-dawn hours of June 24, 1988, Texas oilman Jake Gambini, who built his fortune by working in Colombia for more than thirty years, is kidnapped by Marxist guerrillas outside a small rural town. His struggles against the physical indignities and the psychological terror to which he is subjected by his kidnappers form the grim backdrop of this compelling story. Leftist historian Herbert Braun, a Colombian and brother-in-law of the victim, leads the reader to an intimate view of contemporary Colombia and the decades-long violent insurgency aimed at bringing about a new, more democratic government and freeing the nation from control of foreign oil interests. In Our Guerrillas, Our Sidewalks we walk beside Braun on the streets of Bogota. We read the newspapers, hearing the voices of journalists, politicians, military men, drug barons, and death squads. We are next to him as he negotiates with the guerrillas in one fruitless telephone conversation after another. We come face to face