NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 07, 2011

Q: Enticed by record gold prices, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary squads are rushing into Colombia's gold fields to find money to keep fighting a four-decade civil war. Where is Colombia?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Gold mines are a relatively new venture for Colombian rebels. Where have they gotten most of their money to keep fighting?

A. Blood diamonds

B. Banana plantations

C. Coca crops

D. Oil wells

C. While the government says its efforts have cut coca leaf production by 60 percent since 2000, Colombia still is a major source of the plants used to make cocaine. Rebels have collected millions of dollars from traffickers filling the soaring U.S. demand for illegal drugs.

Q: Which of its neighbors was part of Colombia until 1903?

A. Ecuador

B. Panama

C. Peru

D. Venezuela

B. After Colombia rejected a deal with the United States to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt promised to support Panama's separatist movement. With help from the U.S. Navy, Panama gained its independence and the U.S. got its canal.

Q: Which nation has discussed financing a "dry canal," a rail link between Colombian ports on the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea?

A. United States

B. Bolivia

C. China

D. Venezuela

C. A dry canal could make Colombia a hub where imported Chinese goods would be assembled for re-export throughout the Americas and Latin American raw materials would begin the return journey to China.

Q: Most Colombians are . . .

A. White

B. Black

C. Mulatto

D. Mestizo

D. Mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American descent) account for 58 percent of Colombians. Another 20 percent are white (European), 14 percent are mulatto (mixed African and European), 4 percent are black (African), 3 percent are mixed African and American Indian and 1 percent are Native American.