Family members of inmates are keeping vigil outside Bolivia's Palmasola prison after an explosion of violence at the facility left at least 30 dead—but still not identified.
The Sinaloa Cartel’s Sandra Ávila Beltrán, dubbed the “Queen of the Pacific” by the Mexican media, was released by US authorities but faces fresh charges in her home country.
Colombia's campesinos, miners, truckers and other sectors launched a nationwide strike, with clashes reported as National Police troops attacked roadblocks.
The presumed kingpin of the Gulf Cartel, Mario Ramírez Treviño AKA “El Pelón,” was arrested by Mexican army troops along with two henchmen in Río Bravo, Tamaulipas.
Mexico’s most notorious kingpin, Rafael Caro Quintero, was released from Puente Grande federal prison in Jalisco where he had been incarcerated for the past 28 years.
The area planted with coca leaf in Colombia has fallen by 25% according to the UN—but experts fear armed narco networks are moving into illegal gold and emerald mining.
A court in Trujillo, Peru, issued a ruling absolving former National Police colonel Elidio Espinoza, who was charged with running a secret "death squad" within the force.
A court in Lima issued an order of “preventative detention” against ex-lawmaker Nancy Obregón, on suspicion of narco-trafficking and “collaboration with terrorism.”
Murders in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas jumped more than 90% and kidnapping reports more than doubled over last year to the highest rate in the country.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s pledge to reduce gangland violence is looking dubious as nearly 30 are killed in Michoacán fighting between narco-gunmen and federales.
Indefinite strikes brought Drummond’s coal mining operations to a halt in Colombia, putting further pressure on the country’s economy amid a growing wave of labor actions.
Mexican naval forces captured Miguel Angel Treviño Morales AKA “Z-40,” head of the notorious Zetas cartel—but his younger brother, “Z-42,” is poised to be the new boss.
