On the Radar: The End of Colombia’s Total Peace?
How is Colombia’s new president backing up his hardline campaign promises? Is Ecuador closing in on who ordered the most…
The US Anti-Drug Missile Strikes Are Back. But Are They Working?
The United States launched new strikes on vessels suspected of transporting drugs in late August—the first attacks after a two-month…
The InSight Take: Who Killed Fernando Villavicencio? Ecuador’s Reckoning.
Three years after presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in Quito, Ecuador could be closing in on an answer to…
The InSight Take: The Shield of the Americas Grows, But Does it Have a Strategy?
Colombia just became the 19th member of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition—better known as Shield of the Americas—days after Defense…
Podcast | Gio and Fito: When Gangsta Rap Gets Real
Gio was a gangsta rapper. He was also the right-hand man of Ecuador’s most notorious criminal, Choneros boss “Fito.” *This…
On the Radar: ELN Bombing in Colombia Days Before New President Takes Office
How are Colombia’s armed groups positioning themselves as a new, hard-line president takes power? Is gang violence spreading from Ecuador’s…
The InSight Take: Ecuador’s Kingpin Strategy Has Tactical Wins, but Strategic Uncertainty
The capture of Ecuadorian crime boss Wilmer Chavarría, alias “Pipo,” was a major victory for President Daniel Noboa’s strategy of…
Mapping Latin America’s Megaprisons
In the three years since President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele opened his famous Terrorism Confinement Center (Centro de Confinamiento…
Podcast | A Marked House: Extortion in Ecuador
For Andrés and Juliana, Durán was home. That is, until extortionists from one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs, the Chone…
On the Radar: The Rise of Liquid Cocaine
Could liquid cocaine become the go-to trick for traffickers across the region? Will “El Mayo” Zambada spend his final years…