{"product_id":"beyond-bogota-isbn-9780807061480","title":"Beyond Bogota","description":"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 Bogotá, 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBeyond Bogotá\u003c\/i\u003e 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.A note from the author \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe First Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e10:00 a.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eEntering La Macarena; my detention\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Second Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e11:00 a.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMy introduction to Latin America; a Salvadoran\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNightmare\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Third Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e12:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Panama invasion; Colombia’s two faces—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003egenerosity and greed; indigenous villages and\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eoil in Ecuador\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Fourth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e1:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eWelcome to Farclandia; Commander Simón Trinidad\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eand the rebel perspective; a meeting with Erika, a\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eteenage FARC guerrilla; Geraldo Rivera visits the\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003erebel safe haven\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Fifth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e2:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eInvestigating Plan Colombia; AUC commander\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eLuis Enrique and the paramilitary perspective;\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ea body in a hole\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Sixth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e3:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe displaced in Barranca; Gregorio and the\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003elandmine; the cocaine lab; collusion and murder\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ein Puerto Asís\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Seventh Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e4:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e9\/11 and the war on terror; detained by Carlos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCastaño’s paramilitaries; the battle for Saravena,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eColombia’s “Little Sarajevo”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Eighth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e5:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDisplaced Afro-Colombian communities of\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe Chocó; the Bellavista tragedy; the plight\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eof the indigenous Embera\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Ninth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e6:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Plan Patriota offensive; the new coca plant;\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe predicament of Colombian journalists; Plan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eColombia becomes Plan Petroleum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Tenth Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e7:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMining multinationals and human rights; the\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003edisplacement of Tabaco; indigenous massacres\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ein La Guajira and Nariño\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Eleventh Hour: \u003c\/b\u003e8:00 p.m., August 16, 2006 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMy release; chemical warfare in La Macarena\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eEpilogue: \u003c\/b\u003eJune 2007 \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJungle rendezvous with FARC commander Raúl\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eReyes; the prospects for peace\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Timeline (1948–2007) \u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments \u003cbr\u003e IndexEye-opening . . . excellent reportage—highly recommended for would-be journalists as well as those interested in geopolitics.—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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, \u003ci\u003eLatin American Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eGarry Leech\u003c\/b\u003e is an independent journalist and editor of \u003ci\u003eColombia Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. 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 \u003ci\u003eBeyond Bogota: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCrude Interventions: The United States, Oil and the New World (Dis)Order\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCapitalism: A Structural Genocide\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHow I Became an American Socialist. \u003c\/i\u003eFind him online at www.garryleech.com.The idea for this book emerged during an eleven-hour\u003cbr\u003e detention I endured at the hands of Colombia’s largest guerrilla\u003cbr\u003e group in August 2006. More specifically, it evolved from\u003cbr\u003e thoughts that washed over me during that ordeal about my\u003cbr\u003e three-month-old son, Owen. I couldn’t stop thinking that if\u003cbr\u003e anything happened to me, either during that detention or at any\u003cbr\u003e other time in Colombia, I wouldn’t be around to explain to\u003cbr\u003e Owen, when he grew up, what sort of work his father did. Sure,\u003cbr\u003e he could read my articles and books and discover my views on\u003cbr\u003e U.S. policy in Colombia. But those writings do not explain how\u003cbr\u003e I conduct my work. They don’t describe the challenges and adventures\u003cbr\u003e involved in carrying out investigative journalism in\u003cbr\u003e Colombia’s remote rural conflict zones. And they don’t depict\u003cbr\u003e the moments of terror or those of inspiration that I have experienced\u003cbr\u003e in my encounters with Colombians from many walks of\u003cbr\u003e life. Most importantly, they don’t shed light on why I do this\u003cbr\u003e sort of work and the path that led me to become a drug war\u003cbr\u003e journalist. Consequently, \u003ci\u003eBeyond Bogotá \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of my\u003cbr\u003e work in Colombia—a sort of memoir, if you will.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Naturally, my story cannot be separated from the larger\u003cbr\u003e drama in which the principal protagonists are Colombians who\u003cbr\u003e are living and dying every day in the midst of the country’s\u003cbr\u003e decades-old civil conflict. Colombia is the world’s leading producer\u003cbr\u003e and exporter of cocaine, and its illegal drug trade has fed\u003cbr\u003e the habits of drug users in the United States for more than three\u003cbr\u003e decades. As a result, we Americans are directly linked to\u003cbr\u003e Colombia’s violent drama, both through ever-rising levels of\u003cbr\u003e personal cocaine use and through the war on drugs that our\u003cbr\u003e government has been waging in this South American country.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I have tried to place my personal story within the larger\u003cbr\u003e contexts of the U.S. war on drugs and Colombia’s civil conflict.\u003cbr\u003e I have drawn from my experiences working in various parts of\u003cbr\u003e Colombia over the past eight years in an attempt to portray, as\u003cbr\u003e comprehensively as possible, both my personal story and the\u003cbr\u003e struggles of those rural Colombians who are caught in the middle\u003cbr\u003e of the violence. There are not enough pages in this book for\u003cbr\u003e me to include all of the Colombians I have met or even to reflect\u003cbr\u003e on every region of the country in which I have worked. Therefore,\u003cbr\u003e I have selected those people and places that I hope will\u003cbr\u003e provide the reader with a relatively comprehensive portrayal of\u003cbr\u003e life in Colombia’s rural conflict zones. Woven throughout are\u003cbr\u003e accounts of the most profound and personal of my own experiences\u003cbr\u003e in Colombia. Sadly, for their own safety, I have had to\u003cbr\u003e change the names of some of the protagonists. I have not, however,\u003cbr\u003e altered the names of those Colombians who are already\u003cbr\u003e public figures or visible spokespersons for governments, organizations,\u003cbr\u003e communities, or armed groups.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Ultimately, this book is an account of the U.S. war on drugs\u003cbr\u003e and Colombia’s civil conflict as seen through the eyes of a journalist.\u003cbr\u003e Colombia’s civil conflict and the war on drugs are complex\u003cbr\u003e issues, and I don’t for a moment pretend that I fully grasp\u003cbr\u003e all of their intricacies or that I have sufficiently addressed them\u003cbr\u003e x \u003ci\u003eA note from the author\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e in these pages. What I have tried to do is to recount my experiences\u003cbr\u003e and observations as accurately and honestly as possible.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBeyond Bogotá \u003c\/i\u003eis not a journalistic work, but rather the personal\u003cbr\u003e story of a journalist’s search for meaning in the midst of\u003cbr\u003e violence and poverty.","brand":"Beacon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303903842533,"sku":"NP9780807061480","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780807061480.jpg?v=1767722518","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/beyond-bogota-isbn-9780807061480","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}