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This week, InSight Crime looks at the latest armed stoppage by the National Liberation Army (ELN), as the guerrilla force sought to paralyze parts of Colombia. Once an overlooked player in in Colombia’s civil conflict, the group – whose war against the state enters its 58th year – has come to dominate the country’s criminal landscape, while also operating out of Venezuela, where it profits from illegal mining and drug trafficking. We also report on how the ELN’s recent gains in Venezuela are occurring just as security forces have killed a string of gang bosses who fell out of favor with the regime of President Nicolás Maduro.
Notable reports from elsewhere in the region include Albanian traffickers being gunned down in Ecuador; the Barrio 18 street gang pilfering pandemic relief funds in El Salvador; and how cartel gunmen shooting mourners at a wake exemplifies the hyper-violence in Mexico’s Michoacán state.
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