In a week that revealed something ancient and something new about power, Colombia's president Abelardo De La Espriella walked among the body bags of 23 slain guerrillas and posted the footage to social media — framed as a promise kept, scored with orchestral music. The act belongs to a long tradition of rulers displaying dominion over death, yet its digital packaging and theological justification mark it as something distinctly contemporary. Across the Americas, from Bogotá to Rio de Janeiro, the spectacle of violence is being refined into a political instrument, testing how much a democracy w
Colombia's hardline president sparks outrage with body bag video spectacle
23 alleged guerrillas were killed in the military operation whose aftermath was documented in the controversial video.