Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia

Tate sets out to undertake an extraordinarily complicated task - making sense of a remarkably complex political scene in Colombia. While it is quite clear she understands her subject matter, this understanding is by no means transferred to the reader. Throughout the book she begins chapters by explaining what she is going to say in them, and then never going on to say the things. Her frequent use of personal examples only adds to the confusion when mixed with the myriad of organizations she covers (there are around 50 acronyms for groups, and the glossary at the front does little to ease the pain of keeping track.) The writing seems rather jumbled and there is difficult in finding coherence from paragraph to paragraph. Ambitious, but ultimately, a failure.