News of gangs

US$30 billion a year – Ecuador reveals size of local cartel trade

18-02-2025 14:44 Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa admits that cartels and gangs move US$30 billion worth of drugs, arms and other illicit goods through his country a year.

CRIME & INSECURITY

Security success or truce? What explains the drop in violence in Rosario?

23-09-2024 15:13 Something has changed in Rosario since late 2023. The most violent city in Argentina saw a 62% drop in homicides year-on-year between January and August. Is a new zero tolerance approach working, or is there an implicit pact between the authorities and drug-gangs?

CRIME & SECURITY

Crime deterring return of South American footballers

07-05-2024 13:19 Insecurity in Latin America often discourages local football stars who want to return to their roots as they reach the end of their careers.

FEATURE

Poverty, marginalisation, cocaine: Gangs find lucrative combo

30-03-2024 06:48 Argentina's economy is in intensive care. Financial stagnation, coupled with record inflation and the slashing of public spending have resulted in rising poverty and marginalisation. But in every crisis some see opportunity, and this time, it is crime groups. With drug-trafficking expanding in the barrios, analysts warn of new complex dynamics in the long run.

by Josefina Salomon*, In.Visibles

CRIME & INSECURITY

Rosario is always near

16-03-2024 06:25 As with so many other matters, Argentina’s leaders have not lived up to the challenge of efficiently combatting drug-trafficking. Yet it would be a mistake to confine the responsibility for Rosario’s bloody violence to politics.

by Javier Calvo

Extortion in Peru

Pay up, or else: Latin America cowed by lucrative extortion

26-02-2024 13:50 Extortion, a business more lucrative than drug trafficking thanks to its high profits, has become the bane of citizens' existence from Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

El Salvador Elections

El Salvador's Bukele claims 'record' re-election victory

05-02-2024 11:30 Fireworks erupted in El Salvador's capital Sunday as President Nayib Bukele claimed to have won more than 85 percent of the presidential vote.

El Salvador Elections

El Salvador goes to polls with gang-busting Bukele miles ahead

02-02-2024 12:32 El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele is all but guaranteed a resounding victory in elections Sunday, with his no-holds-barred war on gangs having earned him approval ratings hovering around 90 percent

Drug war crisis

Relatives of Ecuador drug boss 'Fito' arrested and deported from Argentina

19-01-2024 12:40 Security forces arrest and detain relatives of fugitive drug-boss Jose Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito,' in Córdoba; Wife and children deported in early hours of Friday morning.

Narco-violence terrorises Ecuador

Ecuador’s ‘armed conflict’ against drug cartels explodes into violence

11-01-2024 16:50 Tanks and soldiers patrol the streets of Ecuador as third day of terror continues; Cartels have ‘declared war’ against President Daniel Noboa and the national government.