In a collaboration with four media organizations in Latin America, InSight Crime looks at the role of organized crime in driving displacement and slavery in the region — and what authorities have failed to do about it.
Investigation Chapters
‘The Mafia’s Shadow’ Highlights the Human Rights Consequences of Organized Crime
In April of this year, InSight Crime, with financing from the non-governmental organization Internews, met with journalists from four online news media organizations. The four represented the cream of the crop in terms of their online presence and focus, the presentation of their materials, and, of course, the quality of their investigations. And the meeting…
The New Face of Forced Displacement in Latin America
Forced displacement has a long history in Latin America. For decades – and even centuries in some countries – entire villages, families and individuals have sought refuge in the nearest town or neighboring country, fleeing the crossfire between two groups and threats to their lives.
The Stampede of Fear
They say that during the worst times, between 1999 and 2002, when right-wing paramilitaries who went by their acronym the AUC carried out their violent assault in Catatumbo — a jungle-covered region between Colombia and Venezuela in the northernmost part of Norte de Santander province — about five families a day were expelled from the…
The Displaced of Sinaloa
From September 2011 to February 2012, hundreds of families fled the Sierra Madre in Sinaloa state after criminal gangs killed locals and burnt their houses to the ground. Almost a year after the exodus, the towns are still abandoned.
Jorge had his hands covered in dough when he heard the shots that killed his neighbor…
Running From Your Own Shadow
The Peten province in Guatemala is a vast territory, so big you could fit the neighboring countries of Belize and El Salvador inside it. But despite its size, there is little room for co-existence and dead bodies are a common sight. “Either leave, or IÂ’ll make you leave,” seems to be the motto here for…
The Legion of the Displaced
In the suburbs of El Salvador, in neighborhoods stained by Mara Salvatrucha or Barrio 18 graffiti, there are hundreds of abandoned, decaying houses. These houses tell the drama of the families who silently lived through their own history of violence: those displaced by gangs.
There are houses that talk. They scream things, recount bits and…
