InSight Crime | From the Ground Up

Cinco años después del inicio de la pandemia de COVID-19, el crimen organizado adoptó nuevas estrategias y fortaleció su control sobre los territorios y las economías ilícitas en América Latina y el Caribe.

Las cadenas de suministro del narcotráfico han cambiado, los grupos criminales han aprovechado la falta de oportunidades económicas para reclutar nuevos miembros, y la combinación de inseguridad y crisis económicas ha desatado una ola migratoria masiva que las estructuras criminales han explotado en su beneficio.

InSight Crime analiza varias formas en que la pandemia ha impactado en el crimen organizado desde su inicio, hace cinco años atrás.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean has adopted new strategies and strengthened control over territories and illicit economies.

Drug trafficking supply chains have shifted, criminal syndicates have capitalized on the lack of economic opportunities to recruit new members, and insecurity combined with economic crises has sparked a massive wave of migration that criminal groups have exploited to their advantage.

InSight Crime analyzes several ways the pandemic has impacted organized crime since it began five years ago. 

Two weeks ago, we published what was supposed to be the final episode of The Shadow of El Dorado, our podcast series exploring the story of Segovia, a small mining town in Colombia tainted by blood gold. But while we were publishing the series, one of the people we had followed throughout our investigation, Jaime Gallego, was abducted, tortured, and murdered. As one of the leaders of the mesa minera  – or mining roundtable – Jaime represented Segovia’s informal miners in their struggles with the Colombian government and the Canadian multinational that is the legal owner of Segovia’s gold. This work earned him at least 23 death threats, and, ultimately, would cost him his life. This week, we are launching a special episode to tell his story.

El descubrimiento de un campo de exterminio y trabajo forzado del Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) ha generado luto nacional en México y evidencia las crueles tácticas del grupo criminal para reclutar miembros.

El 24 de marzo, el secretario de Seguridad Ciudadana de México, Omar García Harfuch, anunció durante una conferencia de prensa que las autoridades habían detenido a alias “El Comandante Lastra”, un integrante del CJNG presuntamente responsable de actos de reclutamiento forzado.

The Trump administration’s decision to return a high-profile gang boss facing terrorism charges to El Salvador as part of a controversial effort to deport hundreds of Venezuelan citizens could signal the US government’s willingness to compromise its longstanding MS13 crackdown in favor of mass deportation.

César Humberto López Larios, alias “Greñas,” a veteran leader of the MS13 street gang, was flown to El Salvador on March 15 alongside other suspected Salvadoran gang members and more than 200 Venezuelans accused by US officials of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.

López Larios was among a group of 14 members of the MS13’s historic leadership ring charged with terrorism in a landmark case initiated during Trump’s first administration. At the time, authorities called it the “highest-reaching and most sweeping indictment” to ever target the gang.