Criminal Organizations
Monday, May 16, 2016 - 06:43
Armed clashes between illegal groups fighting for territory in western Colombia are driving a growing number of mostly Afro-Caribbean and indigenous peoples from their homes in Chocó department, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has warned.
Thursday, May 12, 2016 - 06:44
"It's not even a hardline or an iron-fist approach but a brutal one. It's a military response to a social conflict," said Jeannette Aguilar, head of the University Institute of Public Opinion in San Salvador.
Thursday, May 12, 2016 - 06:20
Colombia's attorney general's office is investigating five top leaders from the country's ELN guerrilla group for nearly 16,000 war crimes and crimes against humanity, the office said on Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 07:03
El Salvador's government is attempting to legally bury any remnant of an old, officially-mediated truce between the country's two biggest gangs, seemingly oblivious to its own dealings with the MS13 and Barrio 18.
Monday, May 9, 2016 - 07:31
Salvadoran authorities announced on Tuesday that they had arrested 18 people who helped broker the peace deal -- and were investigating several more. The surprise development has moved the government's conflict with the gangs to a new, more aggressive phase.
Friday, May 6, 2016 - 06:34
Colombia on Thursday authorized the use of all military force, including air strikes, against the country's three biggest criminal gangs in a major escalation against "organized armed groups."
Thursday, May 5, 2016 - 06:22
The United States will provide intelligence to support Colombia in its fight against crime gangs, considered the biggest threat to the Andean nation's security, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 - 06:53
The government’s new package of legal reforms and security initiatives has two principal foci, designed to reinforce each other: control of the country’s prisons, and the recuperation of communities.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 08:38
El Salvador's top human rights official has said that police and soldiers executed members of the country's street gangs and then pretended that they had died in gunfights that never took place. Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales said he had reached these conclusions after a nine-month investigation of two incidents last year.
Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 05:53
Central American governments have long responded to the region’s political instabilities and high crime rates with military action and harsh penal regimes, an approach dubbed mano dura, or heavy fist. They applied similar methods to the drug crisis, and Washington has gone along.