"This book is proof that today's Latin American literature reaches far and digs deep. Alfredo Molano isn't a novelist or poet, but rather a sociologist who realizes that 'the way to understand wasn't to study people but to listen to them.' The testimonies that Molano collects are a point of departure for a work that knows how to relate, like few others can, Colombia's pain in a language that has more colors than the rainbow."--Eduardo Galeano, author ofUpside Down andOpen Veins of Latin America "The people whose stories Molano tells are not social activists. They do not provide political or structural explanations of their lives; they do not tell stories of coming to consciousness. Yet, together, their stories add up to a powerful analysis of today's Colombia and should indeed inspire US readers to challenge the US policies that continue to kill, impoverish and displace the people of Colombia."--From the foreword by Aviva Chomsky Here in their own words are the stories of thedesterrados, or "dispossessed"--the thousands of Colombians displaced by years of war and state-backed terrorism, funded in part through US aid to the Colombian government. These gripping stories show the human face of those who suffer the effects of the US "Plan Colombia" and of a state that serves the interests of wealthy landlords instead of the poor. Acclaimed journalistAlfredo Molano is a columnist for the newspaperEl Espectador in Colombia. He is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He is the author ofLoyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom: Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen.