slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2008
- Messages
- 6,483
The murder of an environmental activist in Costa Rica has shaken the country's ecology-minded public and has cast a light on what appears to be the growing overlap between animal poaching and drug trafficking on the country's Caribbean coast.
Early on the morning of May 31, masked gunmen abducted 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval from a vehicle he was using to patrol a desolate beach to protect nesting leatherback turtles from poachers. (See photos of Costa Rica.)
Four international volunteers who were accompanying Mora were bound and taken to a nearby shack, from which they eventually escaped. Mora's body was found later the same day, facedown in the sand and exhibiting signs of torture, according to police and witnesses.
More than two weeks later, police continued to search for Mora's killers.
The murder has triggered shock and revulsion throughout Costa Rica. At recent candlelight vigils for Mora across the country, protesters called on government officials to bring those responsible to justice and to make good on promises to strengthen protections for Costa Rica's natural treasures and the people who defend them.
"The government has failed in its responsibilities," said social psychologist Carolina Rizo, as she stood in the rain amid hundreds of other demonstrators at a vigil last week in San José, Costa Rica's capital. (Ocean Views Blog: Mora's Legacy)
"It's been left to young volunteers to do what the state should do," she said. "To be as ecological as our image suggests would require a commitment to laws and standards. People don't do the jobs they're supposed to do."
"Low Presence of Authority"
With a history of political stability, a relatively low crime rate, and dozens of protected areas teeming with biodiversity, Costa Rica markets itself as an idyllic travel destination for eco-adventures and outdoor family fun.
But many officials share Rizo's concerns that weak and ineffective enforcement of Costa Rica's environmental laws belies the country's image as an eco-friendly tropical paradise, especially on the sparsely populated, impoverished Atlantic Coast.
"It's an area where there is an extremely low presence of authority," says Juan Sánchez Ramírez, an investigator with the nation's Environment Ministry. "The government has neglected the region. People must find a way to live by whatever means they can."
For many people on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, Sánchez and other officials say, that means trafficking in protein-rich eggs ransacked from turtle nests. Turtle eggs flavored with hot sauce are served in popular restaurants and sold by street vendors along the Caribbean coast.
At the same time, the poachers have been drawn into the tightening grip of drug runners coming north up the coast from Panama and Colombia in souped-up speedboats designed to outrun authorities.
"The geographical position of the country makes it an ideal place for the transit and warehousing of drugs," said Erick Calderón, commander of Costa Rica's uniformed police, the Civil Guard, in the palm-fringed coastal city of Puerto Limón.
"But it's not all in transit," he said. "Some of it stays here and, worse yet, traffickers are using drugs to pay local distributors. That means it has to be consumed here, which creates and sustains a local market."
According to officials and residents of the Limón area, cash-strapped users are turning to turtle eggs to finance their addiction, even trading the eggs directly to drug dealers for powdered cocaine. A single nest can yield up to 90 fertile eggs, and egg poachers, known as hueveros, frequently dig up several nests in a single night's work. The eggs are sold on the black market for $1 each.
Poachers now brandish high-powered weapons that were rarely seen before on Costa Rica's shores, most notably AK-47s. "The police don't even have AK-47s," says Sánchez, the environmental investigator "but the traffickers have them."
cont at
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...list-murder-leatherback-turtle-eggs-poaching/
Early on the morning of May 31, masked gunmen abducted 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval from a vehicle he was using to patrol a desolate beach to protect nesting leatherback turtles from poachers. (See photos of Costa Rica.)
Four international volunteers who were accompanying Mora were bound and taken to a nearby shack, from which they eventually escaped. Mora's body was found later the same day, facedown in the sand and exhibiting signs of torture, according to police and witnesses.
More than two weeks later, police continued to search for Mora's killers.
The murder has triggered shock and revulsion throughout Costa Rica. At recent candlelight vigils for Mora across the country, protesters called on government officials to bring those responsible to justice and to make good on promises to strengthen protections for Costa Rica's natural treasures and the people who defend them.
"The government has failed in its responsibilities," said social psychologist Carolina Rizo, as she stood in the rain amid hundreds of other demonstrators at a vigil last week in San José, Costa Rica's capital. (Ocean Views Blog: Mora's Legacy)
"It's been left to young volunteers to do what the state should do," she said. "To be as ecological as our image suggests would require a commitment to laws and standards. People don't do the jobs they're supposed to do."
"Low Presence of Authority"
With a history of political stability, a relatively low crime rate, and dozens of protected areas teeming with biodiversity, Costa Rica markets itself as an idyllic travel destination for eco-adventures and outdoor family fun.
But many officials share Rizo's concerns that weak and ineffective enforcement of Costa Rica's environmental laws belies the country's image as an eco-friendly tropical paradise, especially on the sparsely populated, impoverished Atlantic Coast.
"It's an area where there is an extremely low presence of authority," says Juan Sánchez Ramírez, an investigator with the nation's Environment Ministry. "The government has neglected the region. People must find a way to live by whatever means they can."
For many people on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, Sánchez and other officials say, that means trafficking in protein-rich eggs ransacked from turtle nests. Turtle eggs flavored with hot sauce are served in popular restaurants and sold by street vendors along the Caribbean coast.
At the same time, the poachers have been drawn into the tightening grip of drug runners coming north up the coast from Panama and Colombia in souped-up speedboats designed to outrun authorities.
"The geographical position of the country makes it an ideal place for the transit and warehousing of drugs," said Erick Calderón, commander of Costa Rica's uniformed police, the Civil Guard, in the palm-fringed coastal city of Puerto Limón.
"But it's not all in transit," he said. "Some of it stays here and, worse yet, traffickers are using drugs to pay local distributors. That means it has to be consumed here, which creates and sustains a local market."
According to officials and residents of the Limón area, cash-strapped users are turning to turtle eggs to finance their addiction, even trading the eggs directly to drug dealers for powdered cocaine. A single nest can yield up to 90 fertile eggs, and egg poachers, known as hueveros, frequently dig up several nests in a single night's work. The eggs are sold on the black market for $1 each.
Poachers now brandish high-powered weapons that were rarely seen before on Costa Rica's shores, most notably AK-47s. "The police don't even have AK-47s," says Sánchez, the environmental investigator "but the traffickers have them."
cont at
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...list-murder-leatherback-turtle-eggs-poaching/
