Welcome to Summer InSights, our seasonal special where we share a selection of some of our most engaging stories to keep you entertained and informed about Latin America’s underworld.
This year, we are featuring several of the region’s biggest crime lords from four countries: Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. In each, we examine a different kingpin’s rise to power, explore their influence on the national and regional crime scene, explain the ins and outs of criminal power struggles, and detail their dramatic arrests and escapes.
Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, alias “The Chapitos”
The Chapitos: Bloodlines and Battlefields in Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel
The state of Sinaloa, Mexico is paralyzed by a blood feud between two crime families.
The two sides? The Chapitos and the Mayiza, two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, each led by the sons of a different founder.
These “narco juniors” grew up side by side, learning the drug business from a young age. But in 2019, one of El Mayo’s sons was the star witness in El Chapo’s trial. And in 2024, one of El Chapo’s sons tricked El Mayo into being captured.
So, the crime war, detonated by the arrest of El Mayo, is deeply personal.
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Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego, alias “Chiquito Malo”
Chiquito Malo: Warlord of Colombia’s AGC Crime Conglomerate
Who is Chiquito Malo?
The top leader of the Gaitanistas, one of Colombia’s largest criminal structures, with a presence in more than half of Colombia’s departments.
A criminal mastermind, who has directed the Gaitanistas’ war with Colombian armed groups and managed its international alliances with the Sinaloa Cartel, ‘Ndrangheta and Balkan mafias.
A fugitive, whose current whereabouts are unknown and has been wanted for extradition to the United States since 2018.
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Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño” Guerrero”
Niño Guerrero: The Prison Kingpin Who Took Tren de Aragua Transnational
On September 20, 2023, 11,000 Venezuelan police officers and soldiers were deployed to Tocorón prison in the state of Aragua.
The goal? To take back control of the prison from the criminal group, Tren de Aragua, which had its headquarters there.
What they found inside was far from a normal prison.
The institution housed many luxury features, including a pool, nightclub, shops — even a small zoo. They also found some prisoners’ partners and relatives living in the prison.
What they didn’t find?
Any of Tren de Aragua’s top leaders, including the notorious Niño Guerrero.
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José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito”
Fito: The Rise and Fall of Ecuador’s Most Wanted Crime Boss
The Ecuadorian crime boss has been all over news headlines this year.
On March 28, US federal prosecutors filed drug trafficking and gun charges against Fito. At the time, he was on the run after escaping prison in January 2024.
Then, on June 25, he was captured in Montecristi, a town just outside his hometown of Manta, during a 10-hour operation by Ecuadorian security forces.
Following a month-long legal process, Fito became the first Ecuadorian criminal to be extradited from his country to the United States on drug trafficking charges.
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