International

Cocaine's Influence on Nicaragua's Miskito Coast

By John Burnett

Published October 21, 2004 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 20 years ago.

Over the last 10 years, Central America has become a major transshipment corridor for cocaine smuggled out of Colombia to the United States. Some 80 percent of the illegal cargo is carried by speedy drug boats that race along the coastline heading north to Mexico.

Nowhere is the influence of trafficking stronger than along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, where cocaine is transforming the social fabric of traditional culture. NPR's John Burnett reports.

Become a KPBS sponsor

International

John Burnett

John Burnett is a national correspondent based in Austin, Texas, who has been assigned a new beat for 2022—Polarized America—to explore all facets of our politically and culturally divided nation. Prior to this assignment, Burnett covered immigration, Southwest border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.