Independent journalist Garry Leech has spent the last eight years working in the most remote and dangerous regions of Colombia. Unlike other Western reporters, most of whom rarely leave Bogota, Leech learns the truth about conflicts and the U.S. war on drugs directly from the source- farmers, male and female guerrillas, union organizers, indigenous communities, and many others.
Beyond Bogota is framed around the eleven hours that Leech was held captive by the FARC, Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group, in August 2006. Drawing on unprecedented access to soldiers, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and peasants in conflict zones and cocaine-producing areas, Leech's documentary memoir is an epic tale of a journalist's search for meaning in the midst of violence and poverty. This compelling account provides fresh insights into U.S. foreign policy, the role of the media, and the plight of everyday Colombians caught in the middle of a brutal war.
By:
Garry Leech
Imprint: Beacon Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 140mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 326g
ISBN: 9780807061480
ISBN 10: 0807061484
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 September 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
A note from the author The First Hour: 10:00 a.m., August 16, 2006 Entering La Macarena; my detention The Second Hour: 11:00 a.m., August 16, 2006 My introduction to Latin America; a Salvadoran Nightmare The Third Hour: 12:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 The Panama invasion; Colombia’s two faces— generosity and greed; indigenous villages and oil in Ecuador The Fourth Hour: 1:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 Welcome to Farclandia; Commander Simón Trinidad and the rebel perspective; a meeting with Erika, a teenage FARC guerrilla; Geraldo Rivera visits the rebel safe haven The Fifth Hour: 2:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 Investigating Plan Colombia; AUC commander Luis Enrique and the paramilitary perspective; a body in a hole The Sixth Hour: 3:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 The displaced in Barranca; Gregorio and the landmine; the cocaine lab; collusion and murder in Puerto Asís The Seventh Hour: 4:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 9/11 and the war on terror; detained by Carlos Castaño’s paramilitaries; the battle for Saravena, Colombia’s “Little Sarajevo” The Eighth Hour: 5:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 Displaced Afro-Colombian communities of the Chocó; the Bellavista tragedy; the plight of the indigenous Embera The Ninth Hour: 6:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 The Plan Patriota offensive; the new coca plant; the predicament of Colombian journalists; Plan Colombia becomes Plan Petroleum The Tenth Hour: 7:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 Mining multinationals and human rights; the displacement of Tabaco; indigenous massacres in La Guajira and Nariño The Eleventh Hour: 8:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 My release; chemical warfare in La Macarena Epilogue: June 2007 Jungle rendezvous with FARC commander Raúl Reyes; the prospects for peace Timeline (1948–2007) Acknowledgments Index
Garry Leechis an independent journalist and editor ofColombia Journal. For the past eight years his work has primarily focused on the US war on drugs and Colombia's civil conflict. He is the author of several books including Beyond Bogota- Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia, Crude Interventions- The United States, Oil and the New World (Dis)Order, Capitalism- A Structural Genocide and How I Became an American Socialist. Find him online at www.garryleech.com.
Reviews for Beyond Bogota: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia
Eye-opening . . . excellent reportage highly recommended for would-be journalists as well as those interested in geopolitics. <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> In this remarkable saga, Garry Leech conveys brilliantly and with vivid insight the magical qualities of this rich and tortured land, and the struggles and torment of its people. Noam Chomsky That havoc within Colombia is portrayed with angry passion by the determined Garry Leech, that now rare beast in the jungle of journalism prepared to put his own life at the service of the truth. . . . A remarkable and captivating personal account of the drug war that unfolds mostly in Colombia. Gavin O'Toole, <i>Latin American Review of Books</i>
