Faced with a deep budget deficit and heavy public debt, the two-month-old government of President Álvaro Uribe has fused the Environment Ministry and the Development Ministry as part of an across-the-board cost-cutting effort. The change is aimed at freeing money to fight the nation’s 38-year-old guerrilla insurgency and win a $1 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund. But it has drawn criticism from green groups and others who fear development will eclipse environmental protection in the new ministry, which as of early this month still lacked a name. “There is a real fear among environmentalists that the new ministry will return to an old pattern of development at the expense of a more environmentally conscious notion... [Log in to read more]