Launch of 'Diego: the true story of a Colombian guerilla fighter"

national | arts and media | other press Saturday January 31, 2009 21:54 by Rose

Jim Monaghan, one of the Colombia 3, launched a new book last evening (January 30th). The book is the remarkable story of an ELN guerrilla, called Diego, who Jim met in the Modelo Jail, in Bogota.

“Diego“ is the story of a typical child of poor campesinos, who joined the ELN. He tells of his experiences in the war, in which rebels are fighting against the oligarchs who rule by appalling and indiscriminate violence perpetrated by the Government, the army and their militias, the AUC, who are funded by and protected by the regime and their backers in the US. Government.

It is a war against the communities, trade Unionists, and people, for power in a country rich in resources, where the poverty of people is gruelling and widespread.
It is a war which reaches across every country in South America.

Diego lost both hands in the war, and wrote the book, in prison, holding a biro between the stumps of two arms. His first manuscript was confiscated and burnt by the Prison authorities. Jim persuaded Diego to rewrite it, and smuggled the manuscript out, sent it back to Ireland where, on his return here, he has organised the transcription, translation, illustration and publication first into Irish and now into English.

At the launch, Jim spoke openly about the frightening violence of the political situation in Colombia, as it was then – just before the ending of the Peace Process in 2002, and the exciting developments in South America, which have emerged over the past decade, and which, as he explained, have given hope to the world- to challenge and overthrow the rule of the oligarchs who maintain their power through the ‘Contra Strategy’ as it has been exercised by Washington across the continent.

“Diego” is available in the Sinn Fein bookshop, 58 Parnell Square, costing €10.

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