Fernando Garavito
Author

Fernando Garavito was trained as a lawyer at the University of Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia. In addition to teaching in the Universidad del Rosario, he wrote continuously. In a column in The Espectador newspaper Fernando became the "Lord of the Flies", and he became known as "Juan Mosca", or John the Fly. His articles saw him as editorial manager or editor, or simply as writer, and his political commentary in Colombia earned him enemies at high levels of government. He had to flee the country with his family.

After publishing his book Álvaro Uribe, Lord of the Shadows, he was subject to threats, persecution, and anonymous letters. Fearing for his life and that of his family he took exile in the United States with his wife Priscilla Welton and children Fernando and Manuela.

His article “Why do the perpetrators of the embezzlement of a nation, carried out through the bank of the pacific occupy the highest administrative positions in the new government of Presidente Uribe Vélez?” led The Espectador to discontinue him as a columnist, essentially cutting off his voice in Colombia.

Through the Writers in Exile Program, he was received in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he continued to write and teach at the University of New Mexico. He was awarded the “Cultural Freedom Award” by the Lannan Foundation for his work in favour of democracy and freedom and for the respect of human rights. He also received the Prize of Journalism Simón Bolívar for his research into the Palace of Justice episode in Bogota when a guerilla group occupied the Palace of Justice, which was in turn attacked by the Colombian armed forces.

Fernando Garavito was a political and social critic and essayist who wrote in beautiful Spanish. His book, Praxis and Ambiguity of the Enemy: Essays on Life and Politics of the U.S. and Latin America won the Best Book Award for Policital Writing from the New Mexico Book Awards. In this bi-lingual English/Spanish book Garavito comments on the social and political situations equally in the United States and Latin America in his desire to make the world a better place by pointing out the wrongs that we do as humans.

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