This week, InSight Crime analyzed how the gang truce in El Salvador not only failed to reduce long-term violence, but also strengthened criminal structures. Although the government claimed the truce would lower homicide rates, gangs soon realized they could use violence levels as a bargaining tool to gain concessions. After the agreement collapsed, criminal groups resorted to this strategy, escalating conflicts and leaving behind a legacy of violence and corruption that continues to affect the country.

Additionally, we explored how a gender perspective can help reduce male gun violence within gangs in Latin America and the Caribbean. We analyze whether Ecuador’s government will be able to contain violence following one of the worst massacres perpetrated by criminal groups in the country’s history. We also examine how the rapid proliferation of synthetic drugs is transforming illicit markets globally, and how the AGC could benefit from the new dynamics of migrant smuggling in northern Colombia due to US crackdowns on immigration.

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Did El Salvador’s Gang Truce Lead to More Violence?

In the latest of a series of academic articles, two scholars add to mounting evidence that gang truces may provide a short-term reprieve from violence, but over time can add to the total death toll.

The scholars – Cree Jones and Preston Lloyd, writing in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies – tackle the case of the gang truce in El Salvador. To facilitate the empirical analysis, they break the truce into three time periods: the truce itself (March 2012-April 2013); a “piecemeal revocation” period during which the government began to roll back the truce (May 2013-January 2015); and a post-truce period (February 2015-December 2016).

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New Episode: The Shadow of El Dorado

This week, InSight Crime’s co-director, Steven Dudley, attended the 68th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, Austria. This key forum discusses drug and security policies at a global level. His participation allowed for monitoring relevant discussions and engaging with experts in the field. Our participation reinforces our commitment to analyzing and understanding crime dynamics in international forums.

Read our coverage on our GameChangers series>

This Week's Criminal Profile: The Tiguerones

In just a few years, the Tiguerones have become one of Ecuador’s most dangerous and influential criminal groups, playing a key role in transnational cocaine trafficking.

The group — led by a former prison guard — originated in Guayaquil as a faction of the prison gang the Choneros. After splitting from the Choneros, the Tiguerones built a fearsome reputation as one of the most violent criminal groups in the country.

This week, various factions of the Tiguerones carried out one of the worst massacres in Ecuador’s history in Guayaquil, demonstrating the group’s destabilizing role in the nation’s security landscape.

Trending Topic: Ecuador Gang Clashes Trigger Surge in Violence

A wave of violence swept across Ecuador over the weekend, with deadly clashes between rival factions of the Tiguerones leaving 22 people dead. Meanwhile, a convicted member of the Tiguerones — linked to the armed assault on a TV station in January 2024 — was found dead alongside four other inmates in Guayaquil’s Litoral Prison, as authorities investigate whether there was foul play. In response, the government launched a series of raids in Guayaquil.

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See our coverage on Los Tiguerones >

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