@unpublished {66916,
	title = {Practicing Peace, Living with War: Going Upriver in Colombia},
	year = {2009},
	note = {Download PDF},
	month = {Jan 18, 2009},
	abstract = {It is disconcerting to share a hotel room with someone who needs to tell you in
detail how he learned to use a machete to chop the human body up into unrecognizable
chunks of flesh. Vladimiro{\textquoteright}s military training showed not only in his butchering
prowess, but also in his upright posture, an odd juxtaposition of perfect etiquette and
lethal brutality. A friend had brought Valdimiro by my hotel in Apartad\&oacute;, knowing my colleague
and I were interested in interviewing members of Colombia{\textquoteright}s paramilitary forces.
Although Vladimiro arrived in civilian clothing, the phone call from the hotel receptionist
made clear that he needed no uniform in order to inspire fear. "You are needed down
here," she tersely informed me. When I walked down the stairs into the lobby, the three
hotel employees behind the main desk all made a point of being intensely involved in
their paperwork and sweeping, never looking up as I shook hands with Vladimiro and invited him and my friend Jefferson upstairs. I glanced back over my shoulder\&mdash;their
tasks continued to be riveting.},
	author = {Theidon, Kimberly S.}
}
