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,...

Independent journalist Garry Leech takes the reader on an exciting and thought-provoking journey from his childhood in Britain to life in the US Marines in Panama, from being a butcher in Detroit to driving a cab in New York and dealing blackjack in Las Vegas, from the war zones of El Salvador and Colombia to indigenous communities in the Amazon, and from post-industrial Canada to the socialist experiments of Venezuela and Cuba. Leech vividly describes how his adventures and experiences led him, not only on a geographic odyssey, but also on a path of personal discovery that resulted in him...