Argentina’s fishing industry is experiencing a boom, with annual exports reaching approximately $2 billion annually since 2017. These are the highest levels in history, and a new record is likely this year, as exports in the first five months have already exceeded $1 billion—a 23% increase compared to the same period in 2025, according to official data. Meanwhile, however, state oversight of fishing operations is diminishing, even though the industry is ostensibly governed by a system of permits and catch quotas designed to prevent overfishing. The boom is due mainly to exports of Illex squid (Illex argentinus) and Argentine red shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri). Export earnings from both over the past two decades have eclipsed what once was the most important target of commercial fishers in the region—hake (Merluccius hubbsi). Hake landings have declined in recent decades due to factors including heavy overfishing and surging world demand—along with...
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Two months after they were announced, plans by Colombia’s new government to test what it says is a safer means of aerial spraying of coca crops remain under review in the courts. On Sept. 8, the National Narcotics Council said it would conduct a seven-day pilot to gauge the effectiveness of aerial spraying of glufosinate ammonium, an agricultural herbicide, in eradicating crops of coca (Erythroxylum coca), the plant used to make cocaine. The government of new President Abelardo de la Espriella hopes the effort will lead to renewed anti-coca aerial spraying, which has been halted in Colombia since 2015 amid concerns about its effect on the environment and human health. The pilot, which the government says would also assess community and environmental impacts, would be carried out across 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in an as-yet undisclosed area of Putumayo, a province in the Colombian Amazon. But three...
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While U.S. stakeholders battle the Trump administration in court over mandated water cutbacks due to declining Colorado River flows, the Mexican and U.S. governments are implementing a binational agreement specifying reduced draws from the river over the next two years. The agreement, formally known as Minute 334 of the binational International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), cuts annual U.S. river-water deliveries to Mexico by 250,000 acre-feet during 2027 and 2028. Signed Sept. 2 in El Paso, Texas, Minute 334 establishes scenarios in which U.S. deliveries to Mexico could go up or down, permits Mexico to continue holding some supplies in Lake Mead—the largest U.S. reservoir—and extends ongoing studies to pinpoint new water sources. Flows of the Colorado, tapped by an estimated 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico, have dwindled by about 15% to 20% over the past century due to climate change and increased...
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