Word: colombia
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...billion global cocaine market is undergoing seismic shifts. Purity levels and seizures are down, prices are up, and consumption patterns are in flux. This may explain the gruesome upsurge of violence in countries like Mexico ... While 41 % of the world's cocaine is being seized (mostly in Colombia), only one-fifth (19%) of all opiates are being intercepted ... In 2007, Iran seized 84% of the world's opium and 28% of all heroin...
...actually strengthened the OAS's influence since being elected secretary-general in 2005 - the first winning candidate, in fact, who wasn't regarded as "Washington's man." Last year, for example, he played a key role in quieting war drums in the Andes when a crisis broke out among Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela over leftist guerrillas and territorial sovereignty. But he also took heat last fall for what critics called an all too OAS-like soft response to credible charges of widespread, government-orchestrated vote fraud that erupted after elections in Nicaragua. As a result, how Insulza handles the Cuba...
...caffeine addicts negotiating the recession, this ought to give you a jolt: production problems are driving up the cost of coffee and tea on international markets. Rotten weather in Colombia helped push an index of coffee prices compiled by London's International Coffee Organization (ICO) to its highest level since September on Wednesday, just as futures prices for Arabica beans - which make up the bulk of the world's supply - topped $1.35 per lb. in New York, the highest since October. Recent droughts from Sri Lanka to Kenya, meanwhile, have constrained tea production, forcing up crop prices at auction...
...Heavy rains suppressed output in Colombia, the world's third biggest coffee producer, even as a government plan to replace old coffee trees with new, higher-yielding ones had put some areas out of production until the young trees mature. Combined, the twin pressures have squeezed Colombian coffee output by 16% in the current crop year, according to the ICO, which represents exporting and importing countries worldwide. Wet weather also stymied production to the north, in Central America, driving up prices there too. (See pictures of coffee...
...Colombia does not lack for presidential timber, and most candidates pledge to continue Uribe's national-security policies. Chief among them is Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who oversaw a series of battlefield triumphs including last year's commando raid that rescued 15 guerilla-held hostages. Santos will step down at the end of the month to launch his own presidential bid but said he would pull out if Uribe is allowed to run. The reason? Opinion polls show that in a head-to-head contest, Santos would be trounced by his former boss...