This week, InSight Crime looks at the challenges facing Venezuela’s military as it attempts to uproot armed groups along its border with Colombia. As relations between the two countries improve, the border’s role as a drug trafficking corridor and refuge for Colombia’s illegal actors is posing problems.
Also in Venezuela, we review the opaque drug-seizure figures recorded by authorities this year and ask why the numbers don’t add up. And in Mexico, we analyze the rapid expansion of coca leaf cultivation in the state of Guerrero, as well as the revival of maritime human smuggling routes along the country’s Pacific coast.
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GameChangers 2022
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This week, we began our annual end-of-year Criminal GameChangers 2022 series. We cast an eye back across the last year to reveal the most significant changes to criminal dynamics in the Americas. Besides our always-popular Criminal Winner for the year, we also look at the consequences of Total Peace in Colombia, the brutal gang crackdown in El Salvador, the realignment of criminal power in Venezuela, as well as offering predictions for 2023. Keep an eye out for the rest of the GameChangers being published by December 29.
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In recent months, Venezuela has restored diplomatic ties with Colombia, welcomed Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, and agreed to host talks between Petro's government and the ELN guerrillas. But its military continues to struggle to quiet criminal activity along the joint border.
In late November, Venezuela deployed military units to patrol informal border crossings, known as trochas, in the states of Apure and Táchira.
Read the analysis >
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The rapid expansion of coca leaf plantations in Mexico's southwestern state of Guerrero is the latest...
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Venezuelan officials have reported seizing over 40 tons of drugs in 2022. But while the government claims this proves Venezuela’s...
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An increase in migration by sea along Mexico’s Pacific Coast has highlighted how adaptable the country's human smuggling...
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2022’s Top Investigations
InSight Crime released a number of successful investigations and articles this year, covering a broad array of themes within the criminal landscape of the Americas and beyond. Here, we select some of the best:
Turkish Bananas: The Cocaine Road to Russia and the Persian Gulf
As part of our coverage of the cocaine pipeline to Europe, in July InSight Crime published an investigation focused on Turkey’s role as a transit hub for cocaine.
It was cited by Vice News and the OCCRP, while investigator Alessandro Ford was later interviewed by the BBC, and co-director Jeremy McDermott spoke with the Financial Times.
Read the analysis here >
MS13 & Co.
In January, we published an investigation several years in the making, which looked at the expansion of the MS13 gang into Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico from its home in El Salvador.
The investigation won second place at the 2022 Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism (Conferencia Latinoamericana de Periodismo de Investigación - COLPIN) Awards, a prestigious regional investigative journalism award given by the Press and Society Institute (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad). It was also nominated for a Gabo Award 2022 in October this year.
Read the investigation here >
How Tren de Aragua Controls the Destiny of Migrants from Venezuela to Chile
And in July, we published an investigation into how Venezuelan mega-gang, Tren de Aragua, controlled the human smuggling and human trafficking routes into Chile. Author Laura Ávila was interviewed by the Washington Post and BioBioChile, while the widespread media coverage the article generated led to Chilean President Gabriel Boric declaring that he would expel the gang from the country.
Read the investigation here > |
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Profiles of some of the notable criminal personalities and groups that have marked this week.
Browse by country > |
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ELN
The National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional - ELN) is...
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Ex-FARC Mafia
The ex-FARC mafia are a series of criminal structures that emerged during the...
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"'The growing numbers of MS13 members fleeing includes leaders and that they are fleeing to different countries like the US, Mexico and Guatemala seem to be related to the crackdown happening in El Salvador,' Steven Dudley, co-director of InSight Crime, told Vice News."
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