This week, InSight Crime launches a new investigation into how the one of the world’s most notorious street gangs, the MS13, and the Pentecostal...
Weekly InSight
June 17, 2022 ([link removed])
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This week, InSight Crime launches a new investigation into how the one of the world’s most notorious street gangs, the MS13, and the Pentecostal Church are connected by gender dynamics in El Salvador. The stories of Elvis, a former gang leader who now runs his own church, and Flaca, who turned to religion to escape abuse and violence, bring to light the harsh policies that men enforce, and women endure, in the gang. We also spoke to two analysts on how El Salvador's crackdown which has arrested over 40,000 people may end up benefiting criminal groups.
Elsewhere, we profile Colombia’s ongoing killings of "high-value targets" among the
ex-FARC Mafia leaders, Latin America’s most prolific money launderer faces a controversial fate and Brazil grapples with a new type of cutting agent used in the production of cocaine and crack.
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** Gangsters and Preachers - The Culture of Sexism Inside the MS13 ([link removed])
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The MS13 and the Pentecostal Church are two worlds seemingly at odds. Yet they both demand rigid discipline and utter devotion, and often condone gender-based violence. Here, we contrast the experiences of Elvis and Flaca, one man and one woman, who managed to escape the gang into the arms of the Church. However, their criminal past continues to dog them, especially as El Salvador’s current crackdown targets anyone with a connection to the MS13.
Read both parts of the investigation here:
1. The Gospel of Man, in Church and Gang ([link removed])
2. The MS13 Will Never Be a Gang for Women ([link removed])
** Featured
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** El Salvador's Security Crackdown May Feed Gang Recruitment ([link removed])
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Amid mass gang arrests in El Salvador, the already frayed threads holding poor families together are being cut. Fathers and sons disappear in overcrowded prisons. Single mothers swept up in the dragnet are leaving children behind.
Former gang members who have taken difficult steps to exit the Barrio 18 and MS13, and teenage boys on the margins of gang life, are also finding themselves behind bars. Since emergency powers came into effect at the end of March, more than 40,000 people have been arrested, according to the country's security officials.
Read the Q&A here > ([link removed])
** NewsAnalysis
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All News ([link removed]) >
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** Mano Dura Redux: The Price of Mass Gang Arrests in El Salvador ([link removed])
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While the scope of the recent mass arrests in El Salvador is shocking, it is not the first time that the country has used emergency measures to...
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** Colombian Armed Forces Continue Purge of Ex-FARC Mafia Leaders ([link removed])
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One month after the death of Gentil Duarte, the Colombian army has killed two more important dissident leaders, in the north and the west...
Sinaloa State Dominates Fentanyl and Meth Production in Mexico ([link removed])
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Prolific Money Launderer Dario Messer Sentenced in Brazil but Paraguay Left Hanging ([link removed])
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Powerful New Chemical Used to Cut Cocaine and Crack Found in São Paulo ([link removed])
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Paraguay May Be Shifting from Producing LSD and MDMA to Consuming Them ([link removed])
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Rivals for the Throne - Can Argentina's Alvarado Clan Threaten the Monos? ([link removed])
** Criminal Actors
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Profiles of some of the notable criminal personalities and groups that have marked this week.
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** MS13 ([link removed])
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The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, is perhaps the most notorious street gang in the Western Hemisphere. While it has its...
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** 'Mayimbú' ([link removed])
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Leider Johani Noscue, known by his alias 'Mayimbú,' is currently one of the highest-value military targets in Colombia, based...
** Media Mentions
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About Us ([link removed])
JUNE 23, 2022
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS ([link removed])
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"A joint investigation by American University and InSight Crime found[…]paramilitary groups run by active and retired police officers that control and extort money from favela communities."
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** Impact
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What We do ([link removed])
** Environmental and Academic Praise
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InSight Crime’s six-part series on the plunder of the Peruvian Amazon continues to inform the debate on environmental security in the region. Our Environmental Crimes Project Manager, María Fernanda Ramírez, gave a lengthy interview to Mongabay ([link removed]) , discussing the shocking levels of corruption and impunity that allows environmental crime to thrive in Peru’s Amazon.
InSight Crime is also delighted to have received a special recognition from leading Mexican university, Tecnológico de Monterrey, for having provided training on its International Relations course during the first semester of 2022. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Congressional Research Center ([link removed]) made numerous uses of InSight Crime research to inform its report on organized crime in Mexico.
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