How is Colombia’s new president backing up his hardline campaign promises?

Is Ecuador closing in on who ordered the most high-profile murder in its history, Fernando Villavicencio?

And does a wave of high-profile captures and kills across the region signal a renewed regional bet on the “kingpin strategy”—and what comes next?

This week’s top three organized crime stories in On the Radar.

1. Colombia’s De la Espriella Ends “Total Peace,” Opens Door to Glyphosate

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government has formally ended negotiations with three criminal groups: dissidents of the General Staff of Blocks and Front (Estado Mayor de Bloques y Frente – EMBF), led by alias “Calarcá”; the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (Coordinadora Nacional Ejército Bolivariano – CNEB), which includes the Border Command (Comandos de la Frontera); and the Conquering Self Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada – ACSN). Separately, Colombia’s government revoked the decade-old resolution that had suspended aerial glyphosate spraying against coca crops, though the government says fumigation cannot resume until several environmental and judicial conditions are met.

The two moves capture the scale of the shift de la Espriella promised on the campaign trail: away from negotiation and toward militarized, hardline enforcement. But as InSight Crime has reported, glyphosate alone has never solved Colombia’s coca replanting problem, and ending former president Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” policy risks pushing fragmented armed groups back into open conflict rather than into the state’s fold.

2. Deported Ex-Minister Jailed in Ecuador’s Villavicencio Assassination Case

José Serrano, Ecuador’s former interior minister and ex-president of the National Assembly, was deported from the United States on August 28 and immediately jailed at the maximum-security El Encuentro prison. Prosecutors allege Serrano used his police contacts to help plan the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. He is one of seven people who will be tried as alleged masterminds of the killing.

The case has become a test of whether Ecuador can hold its political elite accountable for ties to organized crime. This week’s InSight Take, Who Killed Fernando Villavicencio? Ecuador’s Reckoning, breaks down the case against Serrano and the other six defendants and its significance for Ecuador’s fight against organized crime.

3. Kingpin Strategy Going Strong Across the Region

Three separate operations this week underscore how central the “kingpin strategy”—targeting the leaders of criminal groups—remains to security policy across Latin America.

• Jhonsson Pulpo, leader of Peru’s Pulpos gang, captured in Bolivia. Jhonsson Smit Cruz Torres, alias “Jhonsson Pulpo,” had led the Trujillo-based extortion and kidnapping gang since taking over from his father at 17. He was captured in La Paz on September 1 in a joint operation by Bolivian and Peruvian police, with support from the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), despite having faked his death and undergone plastic surgery to avoid identification.
• “El R5,” accused leader of Mexico’s Los Reyes, killed in Michoacán. Luis Enrique Barragán Chávez, alias “El R5,” was killed in a shootout with Mexican army and National Guard forces in Tocumbo, Michoacán, on August 30. He had taken control of Los Reyes — part of the Cárteles Unidos alliance — a month earlier, after the capture of its previous leader.
• Alleged Tiguerones leader captured in Colombia. Eduardo Cecilio Vásquez Ortiz, alias “Colombia,” was captured in Armenia, Colombia, on August 26 in a joint operation between Colombian and Ecuadorian police. He is accused of coordinating drug trafficking and contract killings for Ecuador’s Tiguerones gang even after fleeing to Colombia.

The kingpin strategy has been used for decades on the bet that removing top leaders weakens a group. But countless examples have shown that removing such figures  more often triggers a succession fight—and a new round of violence—than it does a group’s collapse.