Organized Crime Ranked Top Political Risk in Critical LatAm Election Year
Organized crime and insecurity are the primary political risks facing Latin America in 2024 as the region enters a pivotal…
Colombia Struggles to Tackle Prison-Based Extortion
Colombian authorities are struggling to disrupt extortion schemes run by imprisoned Venezuelan gang members, mounting a series of recent arrests…
GameChangers 2023: Top 5 Criminal Newsmakers
Five groups have stood out in InSight Crime’s coverage during 2023. We analyze why, and what they tell us about…
US Terrorism Trial of MS13 Leader Could Expose El Salvador Gang Talks
A top leader of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges filed by US federal prosecutors, marking…
Honduras and El Salvador: Two States of Emergency With Very Different Results
El Salvador’s success in fighting gangs with a state of emergency inspired Honduras to do its own version. But one…
Keeping a Lid on Prisons
Diego* was thrown into prison just days after El Salvador’s state of emergency began. A 22-year-old university student, he had…
‘Too Many Soldiers’: How Bukele’s Crackdown Succeeded Where Others Failed
Before the administration of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, no government had succeeded in breaking up the country’s vaunted and…
The Road to El Salvador’s State of Emergency
The road to El Salvador’s state of emergency has been long and bloody. The small Central American nation spent decades…
The Future Looks Bleak for El Salvador’s Gangs
On a scorching July afternoon at an urban park in El Salvador’s Apopa municipality, just north of capital city San…
Gangs on the Run: How Bukele’s Crackdown Drove Gangs Underground
It was mid-October 2022 when Felipe,* a heavily-tattooed former member of El Salvador’s largest street gang finally escaped the government’s…