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BEYOND BOGOTÁ
Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia
by GARRY LEECH

Beyond Bogotá is built around the eleven hours that independent journalist Garry Leech was held captive by the FARC,  in August of 2006. Drawing on unprecedented access to soldiers, guerrillas, paramilitaries and peasants in conflict zones and cocaine-producing areas, Leech’s documentary memoir 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.

Garry Leech is editor of Colombia Journal, author of Crude Interventions and Killing Peace, and coauthor of The People Behind Colombian Coal. A lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Cape Breton University, Leech lives in Nova Scotia.

The Profits of Extermination uncovers the costs of foreign investment, privatization and neo-liberalism in Colombia. US corporations have manipulated the law and worked hand in hand with right-wing death squads and the US government to ensure profits at the cost of the rights and lives of workers, peasants and miners. According to this study, both US military aid and human rights violations are disproportionately concentrated in Colombia's lucrative mining and energy zones, where large foreign corporations use military and paramilitary forces to secure their investments.

Acclaimed journalist Alfredo Molano is a columnist for the newspaper El Espectador in Colombia. He is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He is the author of Loyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom: Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen.

Here in their own words are the stories of the desterrados, or "dispossessed"-the thousands of Colombians displaced by years of war and state-backed terrorism, funded in part through US aid to the Colombian government.These gripping stories show the human face of those who suffer the effects of the US "Plan Colombia" and of a state that serves the interests of wealthy landlords instead of the poor.

Premiered in Madison, Wisconsin on April 3, 2003, this video explores questions of U.S. government involvement in a so-called "drug war" in Colombia, and the relationship of this intervention to Colombia's ongoing 50-year quasi-civil war. Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy have also produced and directed such award-winning video documentaries as "Peru: Between the Hammer and the Anvil" and "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm."

This video (VHS format) is currently available from CSN for only $20.00, plus $2.00 (U.S. dollars) for shipping, while supply lasts!

The only published account in English of what occurred in November 1985 when the M19 guerrillas took the Colombian Supreme Court Justices hostages. Gathering data uncovered by independent investigators, particularly the morgue workers who risked their lives to uncover the gruesome truth, Carrigan shows that the Colombian Army effectively staged a coup by wiping out the independent judicary and firmly putting the Colombian President in a subsidiary position to the military.

This book is currently out-of-print, but you can order it NEW from CSN for only $15.00, plus $2.00 (U.S. dollars) for shipping, while supply lasts!

This book provides an excellent overview of the complexities of the drug-financed civil war and U.S. concern that the Colombian conflict will destabilize the Andean region.

This book is currently available from CSN for the discounted price of $20.00, plus $2.00 (U.S. dollars) for shipping, while supply lasts!

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"Based on a documentary I did for National Public Radio in 1994, it tells a remarkably hopeful -- and true -- story in the midst of Colombia's ongoing misfortunes. It particularly showcases Colombia's magnificent natural environment, and chronicles the efforts of Colombian visionaries who for nearly three decades have learned how to prosper with nature instead of destroying it."
Alan Weisman

Based upon papers originally presented at an international symposium (Bogota , 1985) on "La Violencia", historians and social and political scientists La Violencia from the Bogotazo thru the mid-50s plus the current period. A good, readable book on the roots of the current situation in Colombia.