But talk to merchants and shoppers and they’ll tell you stories of want, not bounty. The fallout from exploding global prices for grains and fuel has landed hard on this impoverished Central American nation of 5.7 million people.

Bean seller Blanca Castro said most of her customers were buying less than they were just a few months ago. Some are stooping to humiliating lengths for bargains.

“They root through the garbage,” Castro said. “I see more of this every day.”

Much of Latin America has benefited from soaring global prices for agricultural commodities and petroleum. Venezuela and Mexico are flush with oil profits. Good times are rolling for soybean farmers in Argentina and Brazil.

But in Central America, a major importer of grain and oil, the price hikes are wreaking havoc on already fragile economies. The region’s presidents are slated to gather here Wednesday for an emergency summit on food security. Aid agencies are warning of rising social tensions in countries where a typical day’s wages won’t buy a gallon of gas and food inflation is breaking family budgets.

In Honduras, thousands took to the streets last month to protest their eroding purchasing power. Bakers in El Salvador did the same in March to vent their anger over expensive wheat flour. In Guatemala, prices for corn tortillas have jumped 30% in recent months. That’s worrying officials as the country heads into its annual “hunger season” when tens of thousands of farm laborers are idle during the rainy summer months.

A 144-page report compiled after a 2006 inquiry into the Directorate of Special Operatioins, or Scorpions, was made public Monday and found the existence of the FBI-style unit was “as valid today as it was at conception”.

The Khampepe Commission report, released by the government, found the Scorpions (also known as the Directorate of Special Operations) still had “a place in the government’s law enforcement plan.”

“Despite indications that crime levels are dropping, it is my considered view that organized crime still presents a threat that needs to be addressed through an effective comprehensive strategy,” SAPA news agency quoted the report as saying.

“The argument that the rationale no longer holds since the levels of crime are showing a decline is therefore devoid of merit.

Mbeki in 2005 commissioned Judge Sisi Khampepe to look into the unit, whose prosecutor-led investigations have made inroads into organised crime in the country while its tactics have been criticised.