Report: Pretrial Detentions Continue to Plague Latin American Prisons

A new US report documents how pretrial detentions continue to overcrowd Latin America’s prison systems, leading to gang recruitment, violence and violations of prisoners’ human rights.

PCC Suspected in Journalist's Killing on Brazil-Paraguay Border

Armed men shot and killed a Brazilian journalist who covered police and drug trafficking along the Brazil-Paraguay border, underscoring the precarious situation for reporters in a lawless region dominated by…

Overview of Violence Against Social Leaders in Colombia

Social leaders across Colombia were murdered at an almost unprecedented rate in 2019, and for a wide range of causes. Criminal gangs seeking to protect their illegal economies, such as…

Impunity Persists in Murder Cases of Mexico’s Indigenous Leaders

Despite increasingly coming under fire, a new report says that authorities in Mexico are failing to protect Indigenous human rights leaders defending the environment from armed groups and exploitation, underscoring…

Private Messages Further Link Honduras Elites to Berta Cáceres Murder

Recently published messages have offered fresh insight into the plot to murder renowned environmental activist Berta Cáceres in Honduras, laying bare how authorities have failed to bring the elite intellectual…

Venezuela Reports Show FAES Police Unit Targeting Key Megabandas

A slew of media reports from Venezuela appear to show an elite police unit, blamed for numerous extrajudicial executions, going after two of the country's powerful criminal organizations in recent…

AMLO Yet to Bring Justice in Mexico’s Ayotzinapa Case

After his landslide victory, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to get to the bottom of a national scandal involving the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers…

Still Without Protection, Journalists Are Mexico’s Walking Dead

Reporters in Mexico are frequently forced to confront brutal and often deadly violence, but the administration of recently elected President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has so far failed to do…

Prostitution Ring Highlights Vulnerability of Colombia Indigenous Communities

Colombia’s authorities have broken up a prostitution ring exploiting indigenous minors in the Amazonas department, the second human trafficking ring arrested this year in the region.

Walled Inside Homes, Corpses of Mexico's Disappeared Evade Authorities

Forensic examiners recovering bodies from mass graves in remote terrain has become commonplace during Mexico’s drug war, but criminal groups in Jalisco are making authorities’ jobs increasingly difficult by hiding…

Mexico Criminal Groups Increase Child Recruitment Tactics

Crime organizations in Mexico are increasingly recruiting children and adolescents to use as “disposable labor”, taking advantage of the lack of effective government programs to protect the most vulnerable.

Migrants Easy Prey Under US ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program

A new set of migrant protocols implemented in the United States is requiring asylum seekers to wait out their court proceedings in various border towns in Mexico, where organized crime…