By the 1990s, Colombia was not a state but an archipelago of local powers: guerrillas in the deep jungles, paramilitaries in the cattle plains, cartels in the cities, and a weak government in Bogotá. In 1999, the economy collapsed, and President Andrés Pastrana granted the FARC a demilitarized zone the size of Switzerland. It failed.
: Despite its brevity (around 300 pages), the work spans from ancient indigenous cultures and the colonial period to the birth of the Republic and contemporary social activism. Historia minima de Colombia
Under Uribe, homicide rates fell by 80%, kidnapping collapsed, and the FARC was pushed to the margins. But the cost was a expansion of state surveillance, false positives (thousands of civilians killed and dressed as guerrillas to inflate body counts), and a profound political polarization: the country divided between uribistas (who saw salvation) and anti-uribistas (who saw a war criminal). By the 1990s, Colombia was not a state