Gangs Still Control Rio's Slums.

AP Via MIAMI HERALD/
There are 2 million slum dwellers in Rio and they say that defeating the criminals is almost impossible.
"The police are playing a game they have already lost," said vegetable seller Roberto Lima. "They have to make their efforts, we understand. But they are working outside the reality that they don't control this place."

Peru Battling Growing Cocaine Trade.

WSJOURNAL/
Growing coca and manufacturing cocaine from it has been increasing in Peru, while its neighbor Colombia has been cracking down. Peru's cocaine exports may have overtaken Colombia's, even as Colombia remains the world's leader in cocaine production.

Drug Running Spreads to Costa Rica

Serious drug trafficing has reached Costa Rica...setting off alarms among the mostly unprepared officials.

In the past three years, police there have seized 80 tons of cocaine.


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