🗒IN.VISIBLES WEEKLY: The Darien Gap, the Gulf Clan and the "less bad" approach
Hello!
A simple bar chart shows a small fraction of the immensity of the humanitarian crisis in the Darien Gap, the stories of people who see no other choice but to travel through one of the most dangerous areas of the world, does the rest. While a decade ago, between 1,000 and 2,000 people managed to cross what was considered an impenetrable jungle between Colombia and Panama each year, now the figure is closer to 1,000 a day. This has created enormous opportunities for criminal organisations to abuse some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
This week we spoke with Adam Isacson, director of the Washington Office on Latin America's Defence programme, who spent time in the town of Necoclí, on the shore of Colombia's Gulf of Urabá. He told us about the impact of the Gulf Clan's control over the area, and what he describes as "less bad" approaches to some of the most complex challenges the region is facing. Read the full interview here.
Plus, a round up of this week’s top stories to understand the impact of organised crime in Latin America.
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Josefina Salomón
Editorial Director
1. Many drugs, two perspectives. On Wednesday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual report. The document points to a new increase in the availability and demand for illicit drugs, which the agency blames for rising violence and environmental damage. Two days earlier, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, released another paper on drug use and the right to health, although unlike the first, this one calls on states to prioritise an approach to drug policy that focuses on harm reduction. "While Dr Mofokeng's report makes a powerful case for an intersectional, anti-racist and anti-colonialist approach to harm reduction in drug use, with strong calls for decriminalisation and reform, the World Drug Report 2024 shows once again how drastically at odds the UNODC is with the rest of the UN system," explains Marie Nougier of the International Drug Policy Consortium, in this excellent analysis.
2. Hope and scepticism. The arrival of the first 400 Kenyan police officers in Haiti on Tuesday marked the official start of the international mission whose deployment has been as eagerly awaited as it has been controversial. The police are part of what will be an international force of some 2,500 officers arriving to support Haiti's police in the fight against the gangs that control much of the country. Nearly a year ago, Kenya offered to lead this international force, backed by the United Nations and funded by the United States and Canada. Since then, the security crisis has only deepened, with thousands of killings, kidnappings, sexual violence and entire populations forced to flee their homes. "Haiti's strategy is to restore security, house by house, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city," said interim Prime Minister Garry Conille. This is the fourth international intervention in the recent history of the country, the poorest in the western hemisphere. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have questioned the Kenyan police's record of excessive and unnecessary use of force. In the last week, at least 23 people were killed in the context of protests following clashes with police in the African country in the context of protests against a tax reform.
3. New old agendas. Mexico's president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that she will support current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's initiative to move the National Guard under the Ministry of Defence, alongside the Army and the Air Force, following a Constitutional reform. AMLO claims that the change will help strengthen the institution and protect it from corruption. The National Guard, created in 2019 to replace the Federal Police, has some 300,000 troops across the country and is the cornerstone of Mexico's security strategy. But the force has also been criticised for, among other things, concentrating efforts on guarding undocumented people and committing human rights violations. "There have been many abuses, massacres, executions, extrajudicial killings, extortion. The National Guard has not managed to change the typical habits of these types of operators and now, with more tools, they have only managed to multiply the violence. Now people have to watch out for the narco and the extortion of the National Guard," analyst Carlos Zazueta told In.Visibles. One of the most recent examples of the security challenges facing Mexico is taking place in the town of Tila, in the southern state of Chiapas, where an outbreak of violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes, AP reported. A territorial conflict that has affected the town's inhabitants for decades has become much more violent with the presence of criminal groups vying for control of the area, which is particularly strategic because of its location in the middle of a major trafficking route for drugs, arms and people.
4. US$200,000. That was the price put on the life of the late investigative journalist and Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead in August 2023, according to the testimony of a protected witness on the first day of the trial against the five alleged perpetrators that began on Tuesday, BBC Mundo reported. The witness, identified by the prosecution as Jose A., said he was involved in the initial planning of the murder but not in its execution. Five people are facing charges for Villavicencio's murder, including Carlos Angulo, whom the prosecutor's office accuses of being a leader of a faction of Los Lobos, one of Ecuador’s top criminal organisations and of co-ordinating the crime. The possible masterminds of the murder have not yet been identified.
5. 45. That is the number of years that former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to in a New York court for conspiring to import some 400 tons of cocaine into the United States and possessing machine guns and other "destructive devices". "He paved a cocaine highway to the United States, protected by machine guns," prosecutors said, BBC Mundo reported. In addition to prison time, Hernandez was sentenced to pay an $8 million fine. The judge said the sentence should serve as a warning to "well-educated and well-dressed" people who build power and believe their status protects them from being brought to justice. "I am innocent," the former president said as he heard the decision, through an interpreter.
ALSO
Other top reads on the impact of organised crime in Latin America.
"This is a cemetery" Gang violence wipes out fishing villages in Guayaquil (Carolina Mella, El País)
Brazil's Supreme Court decriminalizes possession of marijuana for personal use (Diane Jeantet and Gabriela Sá Pessoa, AP)
"State of Silence" The documentary produced by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal that denounces violence against journalism in Mexico (Ismael García Delgado, InfoBae)
Will Peru Become Latin America's Next Haven for Organized Crime? (Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, HRW)