Weekly InSight

This week, InSight Crime travels deep into the wilds of the Moskitia, a tropical rainforest on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, to witness how drug traffickers are destroying one of the most biodiverse forests in the region and the Miskito Indigenous people’s way of life.

We also follow up on the story of Johana Flores, who was arbitrarily detained in El Salvador in January 2023 on terrorism charges. After 309 days incommunicado, she was released on November 22, in part thanks to an InSight Crime investigation that showed her innocence.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, we examine the proliferation of falsified medicines smuggled into the country. And in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, we dissect the vicious cycle of gang violence and why gang truces are ineffective in the long run.

We also take a regional look at what the results of the 2023 Gallup Global Law and Order report tells us about perceptions of violence in Ecuador, Venezuela, and El Salvador. Further afield, we analyze what China’s announcement of increased restrictions on precursor chemicals could mean for fentanyl production in Mexico.

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The region of the Moskitia on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua is one of Central America’s last great wildernesses, a paradise of pristine ecosystems and biodiversity. But today, the jungle of the Moskitia is dying. And it is organized crime that is killing it.

First came the drugs, as traffickers turned the region’s coasts and forests into a cocaine corridor. Then came the traffickers themselves, financing invaders that are clear-cutting thousands of hectares of forest and fencing off vast tracts of land with barbed wire and armed guards.

The region’s Indigenous Miskito people have been left trapped in desperate poverty, and are caught between the traffickers and an indifferent state. But some are now preparing to fight back.

Read the investigation >

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El Salvador’s armed forces arrested 24-year-old Dalila Johana Flores in January 2023. She remained imprisoned, with no way to contact either her family or her lawyer, for 309 days under El Salvador’s state of emergency – even though the state had access to conclusive documentation proving her innocence just days after her arrest.

In late October, InSight Crime investigated her case, showing that there was no evidence whatsoever that she had links to El Salvador’s gangs targeted by the state of emergency. Four weeks after the investigation was published, Johana was freed. Civil society groups have credited InSight Crime’s investigation for the review of Johana’s case and her subsequent release, but there are likely many more people in a similar situation.

Read our analysis of Johana’s release >

Read the original report >

This Week's Criminal Group: The Shottas

This week, the Shottas reaffirmed their intention to participate in President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace negotiations, even as the group continues to square off with their rivals, the Spartans (Espartanos), over drug trafficking routes throughout Colombia’s Pacific port city of Buenaventura. With no legal framework yet established for the state to negotiate with non-political armed groups, violence looks set to continue.

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