The evidence used to indict several high-ranking politicians in El Salvador for negotiating with gangs has been around for years, raising questions about why prosecutors are bringing the cases now,…
A Human Rights Watch investigation has found that more than 100 people were killed after deportation from the United States to El Salvador, affirming media and immigration watchdog claims that…
Prosecutors in El Salvador have charged high-ranking politicians with electoral fraud in connection to their controversial negotiations with gang leaders, opening a Pandora’s Box for public officials -- long unable…
The top prosecutor in El Salvador has asked congress to strip immunity from a legislator he says negotiated with gangs for political benefit during the 2014 presidential election.
Unrest gripped much of Latin America and the Caribbean throughout 2019. From record violence in Mexico that recalled the darkest days of the drug war, to…
The year was one of political tumult, fed in no small part by organized crime and its favored weapon: corruption. The region appeared to take a step backwards during the…
El Salvador has ended 2019 with its lowest murder rate in years. But though the government has taken credit for the drop, there are likely multiple factors at play.
The year 2019 saw the end of a brief golden era when local and international forces came together to fight state and private corruption in the Northern Triangle.
Welcome to InSight Crime's Criminal GameChangers 2019, where we highlight the most important trends in organized crime in the Americas over the course of the year. Twenty-nineteen was like one…
El Salvador officials have announced the deployment of more than 3,000 troops to protect coffee farms from theft -- a puzzling move, given that crop theft is not considered one…
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele is launching a commission to crack down on cases of corruption and impunity among the country’s political and economic elite, but the lack of involvement…
A hit squad in El Salvador that included police officers, including some from elite units, gunned down dozens of people, underscoring how nearly 30 years after the country's civil war,…
About InSight Crime
Who Are Memo Fantasma and Sergio Roberto de Carvalho?
Inside the criminal career of Memo Fantasma In March 2020, InSight Crime revealed the identity and whereabouts of Memo Fantasma, a paramilitary commander and drug trafficker living in…
Environmental and Academic Praise
InSight Crime’s six-part series on the plunder of the Peruvian Amazon continues to inform the debate on environmental security in the region. Our Environmental Crimes Project Manager, María Fernanda Ramírez,…
Series on Plunder of Peru’s Amazon Makes Headlines
Since launching on June 2, InSight Crime’s six-part series on environmental crime in Peru’s Amazon has been well-received. Detailing the shocking impunity enjoyed by those plundering the rainforest, the investigation…
Duarte’s Death Makes Waves
The announcement of the death of Gentil Duarte, one of the top dissident commanders of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), continues to reverberate in Venezuela and Colombia.
Cattle Trafficking Acclaim, Investigation into Peru’s Amazon
On May 18, InSight Crime launched its most recent investigation into cattle trafficking between Central America and Mexico. It showed precisely how beef, illicitly produced in Honduras, Guatemala…
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