** Weekly InSight
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February 9, 2024
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This week, InSight Crime profiles ([link removed]) Ricardo Méndez Ruiz, a conservative judicial activist whose elite allies tried to prevent new President Bernardo Arévalo from taking office in Guatemala. Our investigation explores the legal machinations and online attack strategies Méndez Ruiz used to wage judicial warfare against opponents of the country’s corrupt establishment.
In Mexico, we report ([link removed]) from Chiapas, where thousands of families have been displaced as a result of a sharp uptick in violence perpetrated by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG). Several networks tied to the groups are fighting to control lucrative criminal economies in the region.
In the United States, final preparations are underway for the trial of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández. We examine ([link removed]) the paradoxical relationship between the US government and Hernández, who was championed as a key partner in anti-drug efforts at the same time he was being investigated by the DEA.
Also in Honduras ([link removed]) , nine female members of the Barrio 18 gang are being held in pretrial detention for their alleged participation in a deadly June 2023 massacre of 46 inmates in a women’s prison. While the government has put control of the country’s prisons back in the hands of the military, there is no long-term strategy to increase security and improve conditions inside the prison system.
This and more below.
** Latest Investigation
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** Ricardo Méndez Ruiz and the Art of Lawfare in Guatemala ([link removed])
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It was less than 12 hours after the new president of Guatemala ([link removed]) had been sworn in that Ricardo Méndez Ruiz fired off his first challenge ([link removed]) to the incoming government of President Bernardo Arévalo.
It was vintage Méndez Ruiz, who made his name as the head of the right-wing legal group, the Foundation Against Terrorism (Fundación Contra el Terrorismo – FCT). In a hastily filed legal appeal, the FCT alleged the new president of Congress, who is a member of Arévalo’s political party, should be barred from taking his leadership position.
Read the investigation here > ([link removed])
** Featured
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** Security Concerns Persist Despite Indictments for Honduras Prison Massacre ([link removed])
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More than six months after Latin America’s deadliest ([link removed]) female prison massacre, the Honduran government is slowly moving forward in its investigation into the atrocity. But the country still lacks comprehensive security reforms.
In January, Honduras’ Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Life (Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Contra la Vida de Honduras – FEDC) indicted ([link removed]) nine Barrio 18 ([link removed]) gang members for their alleged participation in the June 2023 massacre of 46 women at the National Penitentiary for Female Social Adaptation (Penitenciaría Nacional Femenina de Adaptación Social – PNFAS) – the first steps toward bringing the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.
Read the article here > ([link removed])
** NewsAnalysis
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** What Is Behind the Criminal Conflict Raging in Chiapas, Mexico? ([link removed])
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Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas has started 2024 with a surge in violence between the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel New Generation … ([link removed])
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** US Trial of Honduras Ex-President Spotlights Thorny Security Ties ([link removed])
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As the United States gears up for the drug trafficking trial of Honduran ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández .. ([link removed])
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** Brokers: Lynchpins of the Precursor Chemical Flow to Mexico ([link removed])
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When Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea contacted her chemical suppliers in China on behalf of a new client, she needed to make a convincing pitch … ([link removed])
** Impact
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What We Do > ([link removed])
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** #NarcoPresidenteAMLO hits 170 million mentions ([link removed])
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Fallout from a recent investigation ([link removed]) by InSight Crime -- and two other international outlets -- continued this week. The investigation centered on alleged payments made by the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO) to the 2006 presidential campaign of Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known by his initials, AMLO.
The White House and US State Department have reportedly been working back channels to ensure relations remain steady amidst AMLO's false accusations of US government interference in elections in Mexico. And in Mexico, partisan critics of AMLO have manipulated the investigation's findings to suggest AMLO himself is involved in drug trafficking. In a February 7 press conference, AMLO lamented that the #NarcoPresidenteAMLO hashtag, which had been trending in Mexico throughout the week, had “170 million mentions.”
Read the investigation > ([link removed])
** This Week's Criminal Profile: The Shottas ([link removed])
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This week, two criminal groups in the Colombian port city of Buenaventura announced the extension of their truce through May 5.
After splitting from a group called La Local in 2020, the Shottas and the Espartanos have fought over Buenaventura’s lucrative cocaine trafficking and extortion economies.
Both gangs appear to have bought into President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” process, but their adherence to the truce in the long term remains to be seen.
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Read our Shottas profile > ([link removed])
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Read our Colombia coverage > ([link removed])
** Media Mentions
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About Us > ([link removed])
February 2, 2024
Altana Technologies ([link removed])
"Published today: a must read article by InSight Crime on an often-overlooked figure in the production of illicit synthetic drugs: the broker."
Read the cited article here > ([link removed])
** Our Trending Topics
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JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ ([link removed])
HONDURAS ([link removed])
FARC ([link removed])
GUATEMALA ([link removed])
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