This frank and compelling book tells the story of the brutal massacres that took place during the period of “La Violencia” in Colombia beginning in the 1950’s to the present day. Rather than writing a traditional exposé, however, anthropologist Maria Victoria Uribe takes a scientific approach, establishing a typology of the massacres and their perpetrators as she takes into account the origins and behavior of the people involved, as well as their physical, social, and cultural development. The author demonstrates how in each case, ritual dehumanization and bestialization of the victims precede acts of extreme violence, while compiling a precise catalogue of the crimes, the bandits, their vocabulary, their nicknames, the specific clothing worn by the perpetrators and their collaborators, all while explaining the role played by foreign individuals, opposition coalitions, the police, paramilitary groups and guerilla groups. The author places particular importance on the personal testimonies of those victims able to recover the horrific and unspeakable memory of witnessing countless mutilations and dismemberments of their fellow citizens, friends and loved ones, breaking through the silence of many survivors, helping both them and the reader confront the pain and latent propagation of violence in many other world cultures.