Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail (book)- released 2003 This is just one of those amazing true stories. If a fiction author wrote it, you would think it was too unbelievable. I dare anyone to try to read this book and remain non-nonplussed by the fuctupedness in this story. The book covers the first meeting of Rusty and Thomas. During the period Rusty was living in San Pedro to record Thomas's story, another inmate who owed Thomas money tried to set him up to be found in possession of drugs. Rusty, using his legal skills, posed as Thomas's "international human rights lawyer" [3] and as a result Thomas was found innocent of these additional charges. Because his original sentence had already expired as he waited for the new case to be heard, this finding of innocence meant that Thomas was now free. After securing Thomas's release, Rusty and Thomas lived in Colombia where Rusty taught the English language and finished writing Thomas's story. [5] Rusty has also stated that he helped Thomas readjust to living outside the prison. "We lived together for three months and I helped him basically readjust to normal living, having to deal with such normal, boring things as paying the bills, paying the rent, getting up in the morning at the same time." [3] Public reception [ edit ]

I first heard about this book a couple years ago and was interested straight away. A book set in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia. Full of corruption, crime and drugs. A month later, I finally bought Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jailfor Kindle. Once I began reading it, I couldn't stop. urn:lcp:marchingpowdertr0000youn_a7u1:epub:2ac22e25-845b-48b9-8ed7-06d0cadb014b Foldoutcount 0 Identifier marchingpowdertr0000youn_a7u1 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s247xvhxts6 Invoice 1652 Isbn 073291180X I started reading this book as I've had a couple of friends who travelled through South America and said that EVERYONE was reading it (similar to One Day or Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on the London Tube). I can understand why it would be fascinating if you were travelling around Bolivia...

There is a touch of exploration on how the US war on drugas effects countries like Bolivia. That probably would have been interesting for the author to explore further. Colombiano (book) - released August 2017 (Australia), March 2019 (UK), April 2019 (US and Worldwide). Thomas survived in San Pedro by his charm & business acumen. A terrifying place made bearable by copious amounts of drugs. Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9808 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-1200329 Openlibrary_edition

In 2011, Rusty co-founded the Colombian Children’s Foundation of Australia, which helps rehabilitate and resocialise former child soldiers. Currently, his house in Bogotá is the charity’s headquarters. Ten percent of his royalties of Colombiano will go to the foundation, which has almost 200 former child soldiers under care.

A gripping, sometimes surreal account of surviving one of the world's craziest and most dangerous prisons. MARCHING POWDER is the story of Thomas McFadden, a small-time English drug smuggler who was arrested in Bolivia and thrown inside the... His rise to one of the most important guy is questionable. There is nothing to support this. Its really just hearsay. I also felt he 'scammed' the people that would visit, from the Christian Ministry service, to the Mormon guy, to the Tourists. The whole book had the feeling of 'I didn't snort cocaine by choice, mister, it kinda just fell up my nose'. Thomas holds himself accountable for nothing. Arrested and kept in a holding cell for thirteen days, Thomas was robbed by his arresting officers which left him no money to buy food. Frozen and starving Thomas begged to be moved to a prison. The officers found this desire to be moved to prison hysterically funny. Thomas soon found out why, starting with being transported by taxi to San Pedro prison - & being expected to pay. Though it's a hit-or-miss proposition, tours of San Pedro are still available. With some planning and a few days of free time, you can probably get in for a visit.