Simon Romero | The New York Times

Mr. Vargas Llosa, who ran for Peru’s presidency in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, transformed episodes from his personal life into books that reverberated far beyond the borders of his native country.

In the U.S., fentanyl has largely displaced heroin because of how cheaply Mexican cartels can produce the synthetic opioid. It means demand for opium poppies has plunged. As Guatemala poppy farmers lose their primary income, many in poverty-stricken areas migrate to the U.S.