In the heart of Managua’s sprawling Eastern Market, said to be the largest open-air market in Central America, the chirps of trafficked birds last month filled the hot air. And despite a January-through-April ban on the sale of iguanas, hundreds of the reptiles—their limbs bound and mouths tied shut—were piled upon each other and displayed in dingy stalls where they’re sold for their meat, alongside the trafficked eggs of endangered turtles. In accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), Nicaragua each year prohibits dozens of endangered and threatened species from being hunted and sold. Yet many of the ostensibly safeguarded species are for sale in Nicaragua’s markets, restaurants and at traffic... [Log in to read more]