Patrick Symmes is a foreign correspondent and contributor to Outside and Harper's.

"They rolled us up like a cheap carpet. We were locked in a room for 14 hours. And for the first six hours that was okay. Everything was nice; there was coffee. But then the nightshift came on. You could hear gunshots in the street, and these guys were scared. And they were thugs. And they were thugs with a mission: to get rid of every foreigner who might witness what was happening."

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Show notes and links:

1. patricksymmes.com
2. @patricksymmes
3. Symmes's Outside archive
4. Symmes's Harper's archive
5. [2:30] Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend (2000)
6. [7:00] The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Schoolmates from Revolution to Exile (2008)
7. [21:45] "Taking the Measure of Castro, Ounce by Ounce" (Harper's • Jan 1996) (subscription required)
8. [22:00] "Ten Thousand Revolutions" (Harper's • June 1997) (subscription required)
9. [23:00] "The Generals in Their Labyrinth" (Outside • July 2008)
10. [24:30] "Miraculous Fishing" (Harper's • Dec 2000) (subscription required)
11. [35:00] "Sand Storm" (Outside • May 2011)
12. [39:00] "The Beautiful Game" (Outside • Oct 2012)
13. [42:00] Among the Thugs (Bill Buford • 1993)
14. [49:30] "A Wild Country Grows in South Sudan" (Outside • May 2013)