Fragmentation has come to define Mexico’s criminal landscape as the days of monolithic drug cartel structures have ended, leaving behind smaller, more volatile criminal groups that have taken up other violent activities. In recent years, Mexico’s most dominant criminal organizations — The Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) and […]

Authorities in Honduras have touted a decline in homicides in recent years, but a series of massacres to start 2019 raises questions about the ongoing security situation in the Central American nation. During the first two weeks of the new year, at least 30 people were killed in eight massacres* that took place across the […]

Security officials may be part of an international arms trafficking network in Panama SHARETweet about this on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on Google+ Authorities in Panama are asking the United States for assistance in investigating an international arms trafficking network that may have included the participation of former security officials, raising questions about the […]

Guatemala President Jimmy Morales has pushed his country to the brink of a constitutional crisis in his eagerness to rid himself of the anti-corruption commission that has accused him of illegally financing the election campaign that brought him into power. Morales’ hunger to oust the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la […]

A recent attack by Colombian criminal group, Los Rastrojos, on a military base in Venezuela confirms that the group is gathering strength in the country and will not hold back in its confrontations with Venezuelan security forces in order to safeguard its criminal markets along the border. On October 30, between 70 and 100 Rastrojos […]

Colombia’s newly announced proposals to disrupt drug production by cutting access to power sources and alkaloids to rural areas might sound innovative on paper but are unlikely to have a major impact on the drug trade and may end up hurting long-suffering residents. Colombia Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez announced his proposed “disruption policy” in […]

Venezuela has become a regional crime hub, with profound consequences for Latin America and beyond. And with another Nicolás Maduro term, the roots of organized crime in that country will spread further. The Chavista regime is digging in. Politically, it survived the protests of 2017. The loyalty of the military ensured that President Maduro was […]

A recent UN report shows that, in Colombia, the farming of coca for illicit use has not only increased, but has potentially also had significant adverse effects on community workers. The regions of Colombia where coca cultivation has intensified are the most dangerous for human rights activists and social leaders, according to combined data from […]

A recent massacre that left eight people dead near the Colombia-Venezuela border shows how much the conflict has intensified between two armed groups battling for control of the drug trade in the Catatumbo region, and how authorities seem unable to halt the territory’s growing violence. On July 30, a group of 10 armed men opened […]

Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has used his transition period before taking office in December to launch a series of proposals to reform the nation’s security agencies. But the substance of these plans sheds light on Mexico’s age-old impulse to rely on needless reorganization as a substitute for institutional improvement. Among the most dramatic […]