Juanita León has reported on the violence in her native war-torn Colombia for more than a decade. In
Country of Bullets
she provides a chronicle of what she has witnessed in the midst of one of the oldest civil wars in any Latin American nation. She breaks through the façade of dogma and rhetoric of various groups, including the Marxist guerillas, right-wing paramilitary forces, and government troops, to examine the human aspects of Colombia's hostilities.
While the stories illustrate vital aspects of the war, territorial struggles for gold, oil, and coca, the motives of individual leaders, and the strategy of the Colombian army, León avoids the infamous scenes of war, focusing instead on its "commonplace" reality. She presents a unique account that highlights the amazing things normal people do in their struggles to live relatively ordinary lives. Published in Colombia as
País de plomo: Crónicas de Guerra
, the book received third place for the 2006 Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage.