Shared Responsibility

With Rebels on the Run, Colombia Is for the Birds -- And Binoculars

Written by Matt Moffett Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:57

LIBANO, Colombia -- In March, government agents shot and killed a notorious guerrilla chief known as Comandante Mauricio. His unit, called the "Bolsheviks," had rampaged through the countryside for years, kidnapping, extorting and murdering.

Last month, a new group moved into Mauricio's old turf. Its leader, Steven Hilty, wore a khaki shirt and a fedora. He signaled his cohorts for quiet, scanned a tree line and then zeroed in on a target with his binoculars.

The yellow-eared parrot, at left, is an endangered parrot that nests on Colombia's national tree, the Quindio wax palm.

"That's it -- a yellow-headed brush-finch," Mr. Hilty told his fellow American bird-watchers. The finch is one of the more unusual birds in Colombia, which has 1,871 bird species, more than any other country.

Read more: With Rebels on the Run, Colombia Is for the Birds -- And Binoculars

Traffic increases along 'Cocaine Coast'

Written by Chris Hawley / USA Today Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:32

If you know what's good for you, fisherman Teodoro Contreras says, stay away from certain places after sunset on the beaches of Mexico's southern coast.

From the resort city of Acapulco to the Guatemala border, this region has become Mexico's "Cocaine Coast," the main destination for drug-carrying speedboats, planes and even submarines that are switching to the Pacific Ocean to avoid increasing patrols in the Caribbean.

"There are boats out there, trucks, people doing things they shouldn't be doing," Contreras says, waving at the curving shoreline. "People coming right up on the beach and catching rides to who knows where. You mind your own business at night."

Read more: Traffic increases along 'Cocaine Coast'

U.N. reports big drop in Colombia cocaine production

Written by Sylvia Westall / Reuters Friday, 19 June 2009 15:14

VIENNA (Reuters) - Colombia's cocaine production fell to its lowest in a decade last year as demand declined and crackdowns reaped rewards, but rose in Bolivia and Peru, the U.N. anti-crime agency said on Friday.

Cocaine production in Colombia, the world's No. 1 supplier, fell by 28 percent last year according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), but rose 4 by percent and 9 percent in Peru and Bolivia respectively.

"The increases for Bolivia and Peru show a trend in the wrong direction," UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement. The two countries together produced about as much cocaine as Colombia in 2008.

"Peru must guard against a return to the days when terrorists and insurgents, like the (guerrilla group) Shining Path, profited from drugs and crime," Costa said.

Read more: U.N. reports big drop in Colombia cocaine production