Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor: a Journey Toward Nonviolent Transformation

Bernard Lafayette Jr., associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and a Kingian nonviolence scholar, puts it simply: "Governor Guillermo is the Martin Luther King Jr. of Colombia." Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, who cofounded the Community of the Peace People in Northern Ireland, says that "Governor Gaviria's writings reveal a brave and deeply spiritual man, whose compassionate heart and fine mind were not corrupted by suffering but deepened to an all-encompassing unconditional love of everyone, including his captors." Glenn D. Paige, Author of Nonkilling Global Political Science, observes that the book, "offering both a love story and a record of his captivity and vision, shows why he is as distinctively important for the nonviolent human future as Gandhi and King." The dramatic rescue and release of Colombia hostage Ingrid Betancourt on July 2, 2008, riveted the world's attention. Another kidnapping victim that year was the governor of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria Correa. Little known is his embrace of nonviolence as a political strategy that led to his capture by the FARC and his death during a failed rescue attempt May 5, 2003. The book is being published on the seventh anniversary of his death