HOUSE OF JAGUAR: A tense, dangerous thriller of CIA operations and dirty wars in Latin America, guerrilla battles, drug flights, environmental catastrophes and genocides. Based on the author’s own experiences as a war and human rights correspondent there.

1. ARCHETYPAL STORY OF LOVE AND DEATH: The intensity of love when any instant you can be killed. There is no safety anywhere, and any mistake could doom the person you love.

2. FEEL THE FEAR: What’s it like to be hunted through the jungle, on foreign streets and in dirty barrios by endless faceless enemies? When you can never escape?

3. EXOTIC: Midnight landings on mountain roads, guerrilla encampments, the Mexican underworld and California rock stars. HOUSE OF JAGUAR puts you there.

4. AMERICA’S DIRTIEST WARS: HOUSE OF JAGUAR breaks the silence on the extensive war crimes perpetrated by US-backed military dictatorships in Central America. The author was the last foreign correspondent left in Guatemala when over 150 journalists had been killed by death squads, and worked thereafter as a human rights activist exposing US actions. See http: //nyti.ms/1jWunDe

5. WE CAUSED IT BUT WE’RE INVISIBLE: Starting with the US overthrow of Guatemala’s elected government in 1954, the US plunged that country into 45 years of civil wars and genocides. The present trial of ex-dictator Rios Montt has focused on numerous atrocities committed with the support of the Reagan administration, but the US has not even been cited in the trial.

6. HISTORICAL THRILLER: House of Jaguar is the core of Tikal, Guatemala’s ancient city civilization. What was it like?

7. JUNGLE LIFE: The animals, trees, insects, the intensity of verdant thriving beings. The author traveled many miles of jungle and paddled many wild rivers and streams. HOUSE OF JAGUAR puts you there.

8. DOES THE US TORTURE? What really happens inside the torture cells, the US covert groups, and genocidal Army units? HOUSE OF JAGUAR puts you there.

9. KILLING CHRIST’S MESSENGERS: Why exterminate the Catholic clergy too? HOUSE OF JAGUAR tells why.

10. THE SIX HOUSES OF HELL: House of Jaguar is the first of the six Mayan houses of Hell. Primeval myths and Mayan memories powerfully influence many Guatemalans. Are they a metaphor for what we’ve done?

11. BEFORE THE FIRING SQUAD: Will you want the blindfold as they tie you to the bullet-splintered bloody pole and you look down the barrels of the waiting guns? HOUSE OF JAGUAR puts you there.

12. A DOLLAR A DAY IS PLENTY OF PAY: The role of US fruit companies in stamping out democracy in Central America. HOUSE OF JAGUAR tells how.

13. WANT MORE WEAPONS? You’re a military dictatorship and the CIA wants to give you more weapons but you’re so evil that Congress has suspended military aid. How does the CIA get you the weapons anyway? HOUSE OF JAGUAR explains how.

14. YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO LIVE: You’ve just been grabbed off the street by a death squad and thrown into a Black Maria. In 30 seconds they’ll pull up on a side street, drag you out and cut your throat. What are your last thoughts?

15. EXTERMINATING THE RAIN FOREST: Can we protect the last vestiges of rain forest in Central America? And their magnificent animals?