Weekly InSight
This week, InSight Crime launched the first five articles of a nine-part investigation into the murky waters of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing across nine Latin American nations. These first articles cover the plunder of waters around Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, Guyana, and Suriname. Four more reports will be published next week. 

And in El Salvador, we looked at how gangs have kept their guns despite the crackdown on suspected gang members. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, we investigated how the country’s largest gang, Tren de Aragua, has tightened its grip on human trafficking routes from Venezuela to Chile.

 

Latest Investigation

Plundered Oceans: IUU Fishing in Central American and Caribbean Waters

In Central America and the Caribbean, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is destroying marine habitats and laying waste to fish stocks. This isn’t only affecting what goes on below the waves. It also hits the local economies dependent on abundant marine life. What’s more, IUU fishing ushers in a host of other illicit activities, including smuggling and transshipping, while promoting widespread corruption among fishing authorities. Here, InSight Crime investigates the perpetrators of IUU fishing, and the criminal dynamics that allow it to take place.

Featured

El Salvador Arrests Thousands but Gangs Keep Their Guns

Almost four months into a nationwide crackdown, El Salvador's government has failed to disarm its notorious street gangs.

It started at the end of March, when President Nayib Bukele revealed the government’s official hashtag: #GuerraContraPandillas, or the ‘war against the gangs.’ The government boasts it has already arrested more than 45,000 so-called "terrorists," claiming these are almost all suspected members of the infamous Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) street gang, or from both factions of rivals Barrio 18 – the Revolucionarios and the Sureños.

Read the analysis >

NewsAnalysis

How Tren de Aragua Controls the Destiny of Migrants from Venezuela to Chile


As Latin America emerges as the new global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic... 

No Smoke Without Fire: Inside the Investigation into Paraguay's Horacio Cartes


Former Paraguay president, Horacio Cartes, is facing the worse moment of his political career...
El Chapo's Sons Fight Rafael Caro Quintero's Men in Sonora, Mexico
Could Paraguay’s Untouchable Former President, Horacio Cartes, Finally Fall?
Urabeños Ask Colombia's Incoming Government to Negotiate
Indigenous Communities Employing Drones to Monitor Amazon Deforestation
FARC Dissidents Patrol Streets in Broad Daylight on Colombia-Venezuela Border
Haiti Migrants Dying Off Bahamas, Puerto Rico in Human Smuggling Disasters

Impact

Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua Becomes Truly Transnational

 
This week, InSight Crime published a deep dive into the total control that Venezuelan mega-gang, Tren de Aragua, has over the lives of those it smuggles between Venezuela and Chile via Bolivia. In doing so, we chronicled the transnational threat that the organization has become and highlighted the worrying consequences that could beset those countries where the gang now operates.

The article was immediately picked up by multiple regional media outlets. BioBioChile interviewed Laura Ávila, the investigation’s author and project leader, and CNN Chile ran with the story. The widespread media coverage prompted President Gabriel Boric to declare that the gang was not welcome in the country.

Venezuelan newspapers  El Nacional and La Patilla, and Colombia’s El Espectador also covered the story.

Criminal Actors

Profiles of some of the notable criminal personalities and groups that have marked this week.

Browse by country >

Barrio 18

The 18th Street Gang, also known as “Barrio 18,” is one of the largest youth gangs in the Western Hemisphere...

Tren de Aragua

The Tren de Aragua is Venezuela’s most powerful, homegrown criminal actor. Its headquarters are in the Tocorón prison...

Media Mentions

JULY 27, 2022
ABC SPAIN


"The Colombia-based specialist publication InSight Crime also considers that this death “could be a definitive blow to the last remaining links of the FARC dissidents.”"

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ILLEGAL FISHING
MEXICO
MEGABANDAS
HUMAN SMUGGLING
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InSight Crime · Medellin · Medellin 0000 · Colombia