Welcome everybody to Crystal Kyland Friends.

We have an awesome show for you today, so we have an amazing author coming on to talk

about the drug war and the election in Colombia, which is a fascinating topic to me because

we're seeing there what we've seen in other places around the world, which is like this

rise of at least in theory anti-establishment candidates.

Right.

So it's pretty stunning there, and I'm anxious to hear from him because he's an incredible

journalist, incredible author.

He wrote a great book called Kilo that I just finished that goes in depth in like the

drug wars in Colombia, the cartels, starting from the people who plant the coca plant and

what their rational, what their motives are and why they end up in that situation, the

people who pick it, the people who process it, the people who, you know, the drug lords,

then the people on the other side of it, the Coast Guard and the police who were trying

to interdict this cocaine.

So he has very in depth knowledge of the way that the drug war has shaped Colombia and

the violence of them to that, but then he also has deep insights into the political landscape

there.

And so what just happened in the first round of the Colombian presidential election is

that a left-wing candidate, which is very unusual for Colombia, actually was the top

voter getter, but the even war-shocking thing is this dude who's being called a right-wing

populist who ran on this anti-corruption platform that all of you are.

I will not call him a right-wing populist for reasons I'll get you.

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