** Weekly InSight
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December 8, 2023

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This week, we released a new investigation ([link removed]) on El Salvador’s state of emergency, under which 77,000 people, or about 1% of the country’s population, have been imprisoned. After conducting over 100 interviews with gang members, Salvadoran police, community leaders, and numerous other sources, we found that the country’s gangs have largely been dismantled. Various stakeholders, however, expressed concerns about the sustainability of President Nayib Bukele’s punitive approach, and human rights groups and civil society organizations have highlighted cases of illegal imprisonment ([link removed]) , torture, and even extrajudicial executions during the state of emergency.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, we explore the central role that minors have played in the country’s shocking security downturn ([link removed]) . The number of youth murdered in the country surged ([link removed]) 195% from 2020 to 2022, with 2023 totals set to break records again. Ecuador’s criminal groups, fueled by the cocaine trade ([link removed]) , have turned to child recruitment to drive their expansion.

Finally, we marked 30 years since the death of Pablo Escobar ([link removed]) , highlighting ([link removed]) how cocaine production has expanded since the fall of the Medellín Cartel, with the drug reaching more markets than ever.


** Latest Investigation
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** El Salvador’s (Perpetual) State of Emergency: How Bukele’s Government Overpowered Gangs ([link removed])
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El Salvador’s gangs are in disarray.

For decades, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and two factions of the 18th Street (Barrio 18) dominated the small Central American nation’s criminal landscape. The gangs embedded themselves in poor communities, terrorizing urban dwellers with extortion and murders. Successive governments tried and failed to dismantle the gangs with aggressive security policies, known as mano dura (iron fist).

Read the investigation > ([link removed])


** Featured
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** Disputes Over Drug Trafficking Routes Drive Child Recruitment in Ecuador ([link removed])
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Over the past year, Ecuadorian news outlets have featured countless headlines about the alleged participation of minors in all kinds of crime, including the murders of police and attorneys.

For example, at the end of October, Second Police Sergeant Christian Wilson Pucha Islam, who was involved in anti-narcotics investigations in the coastal city of Guayaquil, was killed by two alleged minors — a 16-year-old and a 19-year-old, according to a police report.

Read the article > ([link removed])


** News Analysis
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** Gold Mining in Colombia Increasingly Tied to Organized Crime: Report ([link removed])
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A recent report analyzing alluvial gold mining in Colombia suggests that the role of organized crime groups in this industry is larger than previously…
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** Honduras and El Salvador: Two States of Emergency With Very Different Results ([link removed])
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El Salvador’s success in fighting gangs with a state of emergency inspired Honduras to do its own version. But one year on, two new reports suggest…
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** Coca in Honduras: Cultivating and Consuming Fear ([link removed])
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Smoking crack is inhaling fear and getting addicted to the panic. That’s what White, Ángel, and David say. The three men staying in a group home in…
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** 30 Years After Escobar, How the Cocaine Trade Has Changed ([link removed])
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Pablo Escobar and his Medellín Cartel transformed the cocaine trade during their heyday in the 1980s. But the 30 years since the kingpin’s death have…


** Impact
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What We Do > ([link removed])

All three chapters of InSight Crime’s investigation ([link removed]) into the destruction of the Moskitia jungle region in Honduras by organized crime groups were republished in international news outlet El País. In a post ([link removed]) on X, El País Americas director Jan Martínez Ahrens called the investigation a “spectacular report on one of the forgotten corners of the Americas.” The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) also promoted ([link removed]) the investigation on X.

Read the investigation > ([link removed])


** This Week's Criminal Profile: AGC
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The Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia - AGC) emerged from Colombia’s now-defunct paramilitary groups. They have jumped on opportunities presented by the migration crisis in the Americas, controlling the Darién Gap on the border between Panama and Colombia, a crucial transit point for migrants making their way to the United States. Migrant smuggling now earns the group over $50 million per year, which supplements its income from cocaine trafficking.
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Read our latest AGC article > ([link removed])
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Read our AGC profile > ([link removed])


** Media Mentions
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About Us > ([link removed])

December 3, 2023

El Mercurio ([link removed])
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"Once organized crime is established, whether it is funded by drug trafficking or human smuggling, as in the case of Chile, it spreads like a cancer,’ said Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime."

Read our Chile coverage > ([link removed])


** Our Trending Topics
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HONDURAS ([link removed])
COCA ([link removed])
SECURITY POLICY ([link removed])
ILLEGAL MINING ([link removed])

Support out work

We go into the field to interview, report and investigate. We then verify, write and edit, providing the tools to generate real impact in fighting organized crime.

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InSight Crime is sponsored by:
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