Category archives for: Mara Salvatrucha & other Gangs

U.S. Peace Corps pulls out of Honduras

The Americas Post - Honduran criminals won't have Peace Corps volunteers to prey on anymore

Worsening drug and organized-crime violence in Central America has forced the Peace Corps to pull out of Honduras and halt the flow of new volunteers to Guatemala and El Salvador, that organization has announced. Last month Peace Corps officials reviewed worsening conditions and decided to withdraw all 158 volunteers from Honduras in January and suspend training for 29 recruits. [...]

Thirty-one dead in another Mexican prison riot

The Americas Post - Mexican army troops were called in to restore order

  Mexican authorities are investigating 13 prisoners for participation in a prison riot that killed 31 in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. Tamaulipas state police announced that the suspects were detained after a fight on Wednesday afternoon between inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones.   A state Attorney General’s [...]

US loaned surveillance plane for Jamaica raid

The Americas Post  -  Plane?  What plane?  Oh, you mean THAT plane...

An American military aircraft helped monitor the deadly 2010 raid by Jamaican security forces to capture a fugitive crime boss, that country’s prime minister has admitted, in spite of earlier denials by his government. The U.S. P-3 Orion provided aerial surveillance of the operation to arrest Christopher “Dudus” Coke, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told reporters [...]

Honduran army deployed against drug cartels

The Americas Post - There's a new sheriff on the streets of Tegucigalpa.  Photo Credit:  Xinhua

The Honduran legislature decided this week to deploy the army against Mexican drug cartels, hoping to put the brake on growing violence in the most murderous country on the planet. Lawmakers voted by an overwhelming majority to follow the model used by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who launched a military campaign against powerful drug gangs after [...]

Brazilian police capture Rio druglord

The Americas Post - Even drug traffickers tell their kids to do their homework.  Photo Credit:  Reuters

Brazilian police on Thursday captured the most wanted narcotrafficker in Rio de Janeiro, as they took steps to occupy the largest slum in that city in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games. Antonio Bonfim Lopes, alleged druglord in the Rocinha neighborhood, was captured in unusual circumstances, hiding in the trunk of a luxury car belonging [...]

Another Friday, another 21 dead in Mexico

The Americas Post - Friday doesn't always mean happy hour in Michoacan.  Photo credit to:  Notimex

Mexican authorities report that at least 21 people were killed Friday in three firefights between soldiers and gunmen and a fight between rival drug gangs. A minimum of 15 deaths resulted from three shootouts in the western state of Michoacan, according state prosecutor spokesman Jonathan Arredondo. Arredondo said 10 gunmen were killed in a clash [...]

Almost half of world’s most violent countries are in Latin America

The Americas Post - This is not a record to be proud of

According to a statement released this week by the office of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, six of the 14 most violent countries on this planet are located in Latin America. Launched by the United Nations in 2008 and now signed by 110 countries, the Geneva Declaration has the stated goal of [...]

Violent crime rates soaring in the Caribbean

The Americas Post - Jamaican soldiers frisk for weapons at a checkpoint.  Photo credit:  AP

Times are changing for many islands across the Caribbean, where escalating arms races between criminal gangs are turning previously peaceful neighborhoods into free-fire zones. The two-island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, with a population of 50,000 people, has tallied 31 homicides already in 2011, marking their deadliest year on record. Gangs with names like [...]

U.S. accused of dumping criminals into Mexico

The Americas Post - Calderon doesn't want so many crooks back

Mexican President Felipe Calderon this week accused the United States of dumping criminals at the border to avoid the cost of prosecuting them, and claimed the practice has increased violence in Mexico’s border region. US officials have reported a record number of deportations in fiscal year 2011, and said the number deported with criminal convictions [...]

Six dead in Honduran airport massacre

Welcome to San Pedro Sula international airport

Honduran authorities believe that Friday’s massacre of six people at San Pedro Sula’s international airport was the result of a turf war between organized criminal gangs. “This was a battle between two delinquent factions”, said Security Secretary Pompeyo Bonilla.  He denied that it had anything to do with the recent deaths of nine prisoners in [...]

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