COLOMBIA: Coffee Beans Hurt By Heat; Price Highest... Since 1992.

NYTIMES/ E.ROSENTHAL
2 Screen Read...Combined/

    Rising temperatures and unpredictable rains have caused coffee yields to plummet in many of Latin America's top coffee regions...sending the price for premium beans soaring...to its highest in decades.
    Colombia produced more than 12 million 132-pound bags of coffee in 2006.
    Last year it was only nine million bags.
    Premium Arabica beans have risen more than 85% since last June to $2.95 a pound...
causing some to predict the world may have hit “peak coffee."

ALSO: WSJ reports that some opium poppy growers in Oaxaca and Guerrero are abandoning that crop... and returning to grow coffee...because of the high price and reduced risk of violence.
 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704623404576187264138169734.html

The Body Count Grows Near Acapulco In Mexico's Guerrero State.

LATIMES/
The mutilated bodies of nine people were found in Guerrero.
The bodies were beheaded, hacked to pieces and left in 18 black plastic bags in the bed of a pickup in the town of Tlapehuala. Three others were found dead near Acapulco. Notes left with the bodies indicated the murders were done by the "La Familia" drug gang.

Mexico Postpones Building Major Dam.

LAHT/
CFE, Mexico’s state-owned utility is postponing construction of a hydroelectric dam planned for the state of Guerrero.
Construction on the Papagayo River “has not been canceled” but rather deferred, said a spokesman.
The La Parota project represents an investment of $800 million and is expected to create 10,000 jobs during construction.

Acapulco Shootout Leaves 18 Dead

Acapulco, once Mexico's most glamorous resort city, witnessed a shootout Saturday that left 16 gunmen and 2 soldiers dead.

Recently, Acapulco has been making a comeback as a tourist site, especially for Mexicans.

But, located in the troubled and violent narco state of Guerrero, it is often the site instead of violent clashes between the police, the army and drug dealers.

My own memories of Acapulco are very dated and colored by events.

About my only visit... in 1968... I recall polluted beaches...and being robbed by police while sleeping on the beach.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-shootout8-2009jun08,0,7718575.story