Latest From Latin America & Caribbean [12.04.14]

Drug Trafficking
Caribbean

• Drugs trafficking in the Caribbean : An old route regains popularity with drugs gangs (Economist)

 

"International gangs, from Mexico’s Sinaloa group to the Italian ’Ndrangheta, are becoming more entrenched. They work with local counterparts who may be paid in kind with a percentage of the shipment and perhaps a few guns. Local demand for cocaine is low; the main intra-island trade is in marijuana. The Caribbean already has some of the world’s highest murder rates."

Colombia

• Colombia peace talks with Farc rebels 'to resume' in Cuba (BBC)

Farc delegate Rodrigo Granda (left) shook hands with government envoy Jorge Enrique Mora at the announcement in Havana

"The Colombian government and FARC rebels have agreed to resume peace talks, which were suspended last month over the abduction of an army general, mediators say.

Officials from Cuba and Norway, the two countries brokering the peace process, said a week of discussions would begin in Havana on 10 December.

Colombia's president stopped the talks after the rebels seized Gen Ruben Dario Alzate and two others on 16 November.
The captives were released on Sunday."

• Cocaine with a street value in excess of £40m has been discovered concealed in a shipment of bananas from Colombia in Portsmouth port (BBC)

Mexico

• Mexican journalist and author Vicente Lenero dies aged 81 (BBC) 
• Mexico sends federal forces to violence-ridden region (BBC) 

"Federal security forces have been sent to dozens of towns in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Mexico, Michoacan and Morelos.

Federal police and troops will replace municipal forces in the resort of Acapulco and more than 30 other towns.

The deployment comes a week after President Enrique Pena Nieto unveiled a plan to reform the police."