A resurgent Shining Path and a botched military operation have cost the Ministers of Defense and the Interior their jobs, as it becomes clear that the Peruvian government needs to revamp its strategy to deal with the potent mix of rebels and drug trafficking.
After months of negotiations with the DEA, Javier Calle Serna, alias 'Comba,' has surrendered to US authorities, possibly creating a seismic shift in the Colombian underworld.
The name of Henry de Jesus Lopez, alias "Mi Sangre” or "My Blood," is increasingly being whispered on the streets of Medellin as he pushes into this city, seeking to unite different factions of the Colombian underworld and become the most powerful trafficker in the country.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the national police chief, General Oscar Naranjo, would step down in July, stating that “not in vain has he been considered the best policeman in the world.”
Reports that the head of Colombia’s most powerful drug cartel, the Rastrojos, has surrendered to US authorities are false, according to sources contacted by InSight Crime, and may be aimed at sowing chaos within the organization and Colombia's underworld.
As ideological differences become irrelevant, Colombia's illegal armies and drug traffickers are now working together, united against the government. Nowhere is this clearer than in the province of Norte De Santander, on the border with Venezuela.
The killing of a Chilean diplomat's daughter by Venezuelan police has provoked outrage and further highlighted problems with the security forces, even as crime rates skyrocket.
Ecuador has arrested, and swiftly deported, one of the brothers that head Colombia's powerful Rastrojos gang, again showing how many of Colombia's capos prefer to reside outside of the country.
Venezuelan authorities have captured the last of Colombia's paramilitary chieftains, marking the end of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which dominated the drug trade for over a decade and penetrated all facets of the state.
US intelligence chief James Clapper declared before a Senate committee that transnational criminal organizations, particularly those from Latin America, were an "abiding threat to US economic and national security interests."
