Specially chosen by our editorial team for their high-quality, from-the-field reporting and engaging writing.
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** *Summer InSights
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Welcome to SummerInSights, where we share a selection of our best investigations from the last year, specially chosen by our editorial team for their high-quality, from-the-field reporting and engaging writing. These reads are sure to keep you both entertained and informed about major themes in Latin American organized crime this summer.
This week:
* We take you with us on our journey tracing timber traffickers through the jungle on the Mexico-Guatemala border.
* We recount the harrowing efforts of women struggling to protect themselves and each other from criminal reprisals in one of Colombia’s most conflict-ridden regions.
* We follow the heart-wrenching struggle of a Barrio 18 member seeking to break out of the prison-within-a-prison of gang membership.
** The Jungle Patrol: Fighting Illegal Loggers on the Guatemala-Mexico Border ([link removed])
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*A shadowy timber mafia with ties to Asia is illegally extracting precious wood from a protected jungle.
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We traveled over 300 kilometers through a trio of nature reserves to document how illegal loggers have ravaged some of the region’s most biodiverse forests and to chronicle the unlikely story of a small group of park rangers fighting back. This investigation, which used video ([link removed]) and other multimedia elements to explain this complex criminal economy, is our most in-depth exploration of environmental crime ([link removed]) yet.
** Femicides in Tibú, Colombia: Cocaine, Gunmen, and a Never-Ending War ([link removed])
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*In a key drug trafficking corridor, a spike in gender-based violence left at least 13 women dead and dozens more forced to flee their homes.
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We went to the Colombian town of Tibú on the border with Venezuela to investigate one of the worst waves of violence ever seen in the area. Women were being targeted with threats and violence, possibly due to suspicions they had been recuited as police informants. This investigation is exemplary of our reporting on gender and organized crime ([link removed]) as well as our coverage of Colombian armed groups like the ELN ([link removed]) and the ex-FARC mafia ([link removed]) .
** The Inescapable Prison of Barrio 18 in Honduras ([link removed])
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*Gang life provides a sense of community, belonging, and protection. But it comes at a steep cost.
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Through the story of Desafío, a boy who grew up on the streets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, we delve into the internal workings that make Barrio 18 ([link removed]) tick, the constant state of paranoia that its members are kept under, and the brutal response to anyone who dares to dream of a different life. This invesigation adds depth to our extensive coverage of gangs ([link removed]) and prisons ([link removed]) .
Next week, for our final special:
* We examine Colombian community leaders’ efforts to promote peace building programs despite threats and attacks from drug traffickers.
* We explore the haunting experiences of a cartel bodyguard in Mexico who gets caught up in a narco-war.
* And we delve deep into drug trade corruption in the Dominican Republic amid the country’s moves to uproot illicit networks.
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Learn more about our most recent investigations and the most prominent criminal dynamics in the region in our explainer videos.
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