Central America
Nicaragua: CIA-contra drug charges resurface
The grisly 1985 murder of a US drug agent is back in the news—and so are allegations of drug running by the CIA and Nicaragua’s US-backed contras.
Tag: narco wars
Mexico
Mexico: narcos abduct migrants —again
Tamaulipas state police resuced 73 abducted migrants outside Reynosa after following their apparent captors to a house and hearing frantic calls for help.
Southern Cone
Brazil: deadly prison riot sets off angry protests
At least 13 inmates were killed and some 30 injured in a clash between rival gangs at Pedrinhas prison in SĂŁo Luis, in Brazil’s northeastern state of MaranhĂŁo.
Iran
Iran hangs 16 after Baluch border clash
Sixteen accused militants were hanged in Iran’s Baluchistan province—in apparent retaliation for the deaths of at least 14 border guards in an ambush just the night before.
Mexico
Anabel Hernández: Mexico’s new narco order
Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, facing death threats after outing top officials as cartel collaborators, speaks on the state of the narco wars under the new government.
Mexico
Gulf Cartel’s Guatemalan jefe busted in Chiapas
Mexican federal police announced the apprehension of a fugitive Gulf Cartel kingpin, Eduardo Francisco Villatoro Cano AKA “Guayo”—wanted in Guatemala for a bloody attack on police.
Mexico
Mexico busts more Sinaloa Cartel biggies —but still not El Chapo
Three accused Sinaloa Cartel operatives go on trial in the US, while Guatemala denies rumors that the cartel’s fugitive kingpin was killed in a jungle shoot-out with police.
The Andes
Bolivia, Venezuela reject US drug criticism
For a fifth year running, the White House "blacklisted" Bolivia and Venezuela for perceived insufficient anti-drug efforts—and both governments reacted with anger.
Southeast Asia
Blood jade empire as Burma warlords diversify
Burma’s military and the rebel Kachin Independence Army vie in control for a semi-underground jade industry in the northern jungles, with the exports going to China.
The Andes
Colombia pays Ecuador for fumigation damages
Colombia paid Ecuador $15 million after anti-narcotics fumigation planes dropped herbicides along the border, harming crops and communities in Ecuadoran territory.
Central America
Guatemala: mineral interests behind massacre?
Indigenous authorities in the Guatemalan pueblo of Nacahuil reject government claims that a massacre there was the work of drug gangs, pointing to violence against mining opponents.
Central America
Honduras grants title to Miskito territory
After 40 years of conflicts, protests and negotiations, the government of Honduras formally granted indigenous communities title to nearly all of the country’s remote Miskito Coast.