Hollman Morris, Colombian Journalist, Says Patriot Act Visa Rejection for “Terrorist” Activities “Puts My Life in Danger”

by Max Schoening and Matt Sledge

A Colombian journalist who was recently denied a visa to study under Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship program says the State Department’s decision may put his life under further threat. Hollman Morris, an investigative television producer who has denounced abuses by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the Colombian army in the country’s decades-long internal conflict, was denied a student visa in late June. The denial reportedly came under a provision of the Patriot Act that makes foreigners suspected of “terrorist activities” ineligible for admission to the U.S..

Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP

Review by Josh Sykes

Professor James J. Brittain’s new book, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP (Pluto Press, London: 2010), is a thoroughly researched and documented academic study of the Colombian revolution and of its largest and longest lasting guerrilla organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). This alone makes it almost unique. Add to this the fact that it is based on five years of extensive research in Colombia’s countryside, both with the FARC and with the rural population, and it becomes clear that we have a one-of-a-kind book. What this study amounts to is a systematic and through defense of the FARC, facing the myths and allegations against the FARC squarely and putting them to rest. On this point, the book is invaluable.