Top 5 Most-Read Stories in 2024

Latin America News

In 2024, we didn’t just investigate organized crime. We exposed it.

An explosive video, first published by InSight Crime, showed President Xiomara Castro’s brother-in-law apparently negotiating bribes with major drug traffickers. The reporting shook Honduras and was our most-read story this year. An apparent drop in crime in Venezuela and the rise of a jailhouse rap star were also among the stories that surprised our readers.

Fact is often stranger than fiction, as our list of the five most-read stories of 2024 shows.

An explosive video released by InSight Crime, showing alleged drug traffickers offering bribes to a former Honduran official close to the country’s current president, created a stir in Honduras. The footage revealed a conversation about alleged payments in exchange for protection and political support during Castro’s 2021 presidential campaign. Although there is no evidence directly implicating Castro, the scandal highlighted the persistence of links between drug trafficking and politics in Honduras in the same year that former President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced on drug trafficking charges in the United States.

Although the drop in crime rates in Venezuela may seem like a security gain, it is actually due to a rearrangement in the country’s criminal landscape. The decline is attributed to factors such as mass migration, which has reduced the size of the young population involved in crime, as well as the territorial control of criminal groups, which impose “peace” in their areas. The state has taken aim at certain traditional gangs while partnering with others, and the economic crisis limits opportunities for illicit activities. In Venezuela, although violence has shifted to new dynamics, such as the control of illicit economies by a hybrid state, insecurity is a constant.

Venezuelan reggaeton singer Néstor Richardi Sequera Campos built his musical career from within the prison system, using the fame and support he gained behind bars. In Venezuela, criminal leaders control illicit markets in some prisons and encourage cultural factors such as music to maintain influence and legitimacy. “Richardi” benefited by growing the popularity of his music inside the prisons, which then boosted his success with an audience on the streets. Although Venezuelan authorities claim they have reestablished authority over the prisons, his story highlights how the lack of control and the rampant corruption in the Venezuelan prison system allows criminal and cultural activities to intertwine with public entertainment.

4.How Mexico’s CJNG Controls Guadalajara’s Expanding Drug Market

The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) has consolidated its control over the growing drug market in Guadalajara via the use of forced disappearances and corruption. The group dominates both synthetic drug trafficking and local distribution, relying on micro-trafficking networks in key areas of the city. CJNG also uses threats and violence to eliminate rivals and secure loyalties. In this report from the field, we reveal how Guadalajara, an important logistical and economic hub, has become a crucial base for the CJNG, reflecting how cartels diversify their operations to control both local and global markets.

Fentanyl production in Mexico partly shifted to the north of the country due to threats from the “Chapitos,” a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, which banned its manufacture by independent producers in Sinaloa. This strategy allegedly sought to improve the public image of the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel controlled by the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo,” and avoid international sanctions. However, the migration of production to border states such as Sonora and Baja California reflected the flexibility of criminal networks to adapt to these changes. This could intensify violence in these regions as the groups seek to maintain their stranglehold on the lucrative synthetic opioid market in Mexico and the United States.

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