Narco gangs have opened a new front in South America’s expanding drug war by seizing control of parts of northern Guatemala, prompting the government to suspend civil liberties and declare a state of siege in the area. Hundreds of soldiers have reinforced police units in an offensive against a Mexican cartel known as the Zetas which is said to have overrun Alta Verapaz province. Read Article
German intelligence knew Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hiding out in Argentina eight years before Israeli agents kidnapped him in 1960, the Bild daily cited newly released documents as saying. Skip related content Related photos / videos Adolf Eichmann Enlarge photo .Related content Germany vows action after dioxin scare Global fears rise over German […]
A fire ripped through a Venezuelan government office belonging to the agency that handles land takeovers Saturday, and officials said there was evidence pointing to arson. The blaze damaged 70 percent of the regional headquarters of the National Land Institute in the western state of Zulia, Agriculture and Land Minister Juan Carlos Loyo said. Read […]
This Friday, on 6 and 30 pm, while the top leader of FARC, alias Alfonso Cano , giving messages of peace through a video posted on the website Anncol , his subordinates carried out an attack was killed in a girl of only 12 years old, who was identified as Doris Adriana Mora. Read Article
Fifteen bodies, all but one of them decapitated, were found early on Saturday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, local media reported. The victims, all male, were discovered at dawn near a shopping mall along with several, threatening hand-written messages that are typically left as a calling card by drug cartels. Read Article
On Thursday morning 30 individuals were robbed by three armed individuals while taking an unauthorized path to Bogota’s main attraction, Cerro de Monserrate . There were no injuries reported. One of the victims reported the incident to police who stated that the visitors knew they were not to take that path. The victim told a […]
Gunmen killed four women and four children, including an 18-month boy, and wounded three others Thursday in an attack on a minibus in Honduras, officials said. The attack in the rural eastern province of Olancho appears to have been aimed at one of the passengers on the minibus, said Security Ministry spokesman Leonel Sauceda. Read […]
In Neiva on Thursday morning a bomb believed to be set by FARC exploded caused damages to 50 homes. There were no reported injuries. Apparently, the bomb may have been set by FARC for a farmer failing to pay extortion. Read Article
There is a current multi-agency effort to destroy shacks and housing that drug traffickers are using northwest of Guayaquil. Establishments in the area that sell wood poles and housing supplies have been closed. Read Article
Arrested in Sinaloa, northwestern Mexico, a U.S. citizen of 68 years for rape of minors, authorities said. The man was identified as Robert Leman Stillings, wanted for the crime of statutory rape by a court of Detroit, United States, said the state attorney. He was arrested in Mazatlan. Read Article
A total of 517 executions recorded in 2010 the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, an entity the U.S. border. Of the total, 30 were innocent victims, “said Jorge Domene, spokesman for the State Security Council. Read Article
Staff of the security forces detained three individuals suspected of killing 15 lizards (much like the reptile iguana). The discovery was made possible when authorities received an anonymous call. Immediately, the police mounted a roadblock on the road where intercepted the car, a Mitsubishi Nativa black, within which located the 15 iguanas in a pot, […]
Famed chef Gordon Ramsay was covered in petrol and threatened at gunpoint in Costa Rica while conducting an investigation on shark finning as part of Britain’s Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight series. Chef Gordon Ramsay was conducting the investigation for Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight series. (Photo: Gordon Ramsay/FIS) “It is a multibillion dollar industry, […]
A female gang member was arrested in connection with the bombing of a bus in Guatemala City that left seven dead, authorities said. Sonia Veliz, a member of the Mara 18 street gang, was identified through a composite sketch police made based on statements from a witness, said Ronnie Lopez, prosecutor for organized crime. Read […]
Extortionists left a grenade under the seat of an inro to intimidate the owners of the charge carrier and quotas. A pineapple type grenade was found in one of the seats in interprovincial bus heading from Trujillo to Chiclayo, causing alarm among the passengers. The explosive was in a black bag that was left in […]
The scandal currently embroiling Germany’s biggest small arms manufacturer is becoming more and more difficult to contain. Heckler & Koch (H&K) stands accused of illegally exporting handguns and automatic rifles to embargoed regions of Mexico in the grip of a deadly drugs war, and of deceiving the Federal Security Council, chaired by Chancellor Angela Merkel, […]
Benedict XVI gave us words of great comfort and encouragement in the message he delivered on Christmas Eve. “God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways,” the pope said. “He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep […]
French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay $137 million last week to settle a foreign bribery investigation spearheaded by the U.S. Justice Department over illegal payments made to Costa Rica, Honduras, Taiwan and Malaysia. Former Alcatel officials paid an estimated $9.6 million in bribes to Costa Rican officials, including former President Miguel Angel Rodriguez (1998-2002), […]
Narcotics Police seized 1.5 tons of cocaine in the port of Cartagena, which belonged to the illegal band The Urabaeños. According to Gen. Oscar Naranjo, director of the National Police, the drug valued at 7,200 million pesos was hidden in the roof of a container that was transported concentrate for dogs. Read Article
Bank robbers in Argentina have tunnelled into a vault and emptied more than 100 safety deposit boxes, police say. The robbery in Buenos Aires was only detected when bank staff returned to work after the new year weekend. Since the 1991 financial crisis, many residents in Argentina have kept cash in safety deposit boxes. Read […]
An explosion on a bus in Guatemala City has killed at least five people and left more than a dozen others with serious burns. Police think the blast was caused by a home-made fire bomb which was either thrown onto the bus or left on board, causing it to burst into flames. Read Article
A Cobourg, Ont., woman has been arrested in Peru because authorities there believe she was part of a group that allegedly tried to smuggle 52 kg of cocaine out of the country on Dec. 26. Read Article
Ecstasy is a common drug among young people in large cities in Peru. However, there is information that the drug is gaining use among smaller cities in bars and nightclubs. In Aguaytía. Peru, there has been a noted increase in the us according to infoperu.pe. Read Article
Military located at the police station in Huanta Sector took into custody an 18 year old female in possession of two weapons. The area is known for high drug trafficking. Read Article
In June of 2010 the Ministry of Social Development in the Ucayali region set up a women’s emergency center. In June there were as many as four complaints a day regarding violence and sexual abuse. However, as the center became more well known the number of complaints have increased to seven complaints per day. Read […]
World Financial Group, Inc. recently learned of an email scam circulating in Colombia falsely stating that World Financial Group is hiring citizens from Colombia to work in Canada and will assist them in securing visas through the Canadian Embassy once personal documentation is produced and mailed. Read Article
A recent outbreak of ATM scams in Puerto Vallarta involving cloned cash machines designed to steal confidential banking information has been the latest method to fraud visitors to the popular resort town. Many times a day tourists use one of the ATMs installed into the street-side of locaRead Article
Italy’s ambassador to Brazil has been recalled after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opted not to extradite a leftist extremist facing murder charges in Italy on Friday, his last day in office. Read Article
A letter purportedly signed by the La Familia drug cartel announcing a one-month truce circulated Sunday in the western state of Michoacan. In the one-page message, distributed by e-mail and in some cities door by door, the gang claims it will halt all crime activity during January to demonstrate that the cartel “is not responsible […]
The first DNA laboratory opened in late May 2010, work on the third floor of Building 9 October the Attorney General’s Office in Quito. The mission of this department is to contribute with input and scientific value of genetic testing to clarify such cases of forensic and biological ties. It has also become one of […]
A diplomatic officer from Hong Kong is being charged for possession and transporting endangered species from the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The police report indicated that the diplomat’s luggage was checked at the airport on Baltra Island after being alerted by a search dog. His luggage contained 20 dried seahorses, 37 unknown marine species, and […]
The FBI told KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona has denied that the U.S. man murdered in Culiacan, Mexico on Thursday is related to any employee of the FBI.
A 26-YEAR OLD US man was shot dead in a taco restaurant in north-western Mexico, a Mexican justice official said on Thursday. The official from Sinaloa state, the cradle of Mexico’s drug trafficking industry, told AFP that family members had identified the victim as Christopher Elecnis Mandil, a musician from the southern US state of […]
Latin American drug barons have been exposed as a crucial source of funds for al-Qaida by paying them to ensure the safe passage of cocaine across North Africa and towards Europe. Islamist rebels familiar with the terrain of the Sahara have struck deals under which they provide armed security escorts for drug traffickers in return […]
Greece’s foreign ministry says a small bomb exploded outside the Greek embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, causing minimal damage and no injuries. Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras told the AP said the device was very small and that there was no one at the embassy when it went off Thursday. Read Article
Colombia’s president hailed Wednesday the killing by police of Pedro Guerrero, a notorious drug lord known as “The Knife” who had a 2.5-million-dollar US bounty on his head. Skip related content Related photos / videos National Police Chief Gen. Oscar Naranjo, holds a handgun seized from Colombian drug lord …More Enlarge photo .Authorities say the […]
A balance on personal security in Venezuela shows that 123,000 people were killed during the past 10 years. Out of these, about 16,000 died in 2010 alone, according to unofficial figures provided by the Commission on Public Safety, which comprises opposition deputies-elect. The lawmakers questioned the efforts made by the cabinet of President Hugo Chávez […]
Men claiming to belong to the Zetas drug gang forced radio stations to broadcast a threat of war in a northern Guatemalan province where the government declared a state of siege last week, authorities said Tuesday. The men arrived at three radio stations in the northern city of Cobán and threatened to burn the premises […]
With the rise of gruesome massacres and public shootouts that have put civilians in the line of fire, Mexico City has become an unlikely oasis for some hoping to escape the drug war. Read Article
A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable published Saturday depicts the leader of Mexico’s Army “lamenting” its lengthy role in the anti-drug offensive, but expecting it to last between seven and 10 more years. The cable says Defense Secretary Gen. Guillermo Galván mistrusts other Mexican law enforcement agencies and prefers to work separately, because corrupt officials had […]
Joseph Proctor told his girlfriend he was popping out to the convenience store in the quiet Mexican beach town where the couple had just moved, intending to start a new life. The next morning, the 32-year-old New York native was dead inside his crashed van on a road outside Acapulco. He had multiple bullet wounds. […]
Guatemala captured nearly two dozen suspected drug traffickers, automatic weapons and small planes in a country-wide sweep to crack down on Mexican cartels smuggling drugs through Central America. The arrests, four on Saturday and 18 over the past week, are the biggest blow yet to the Zetas drug gang, now operating in around 75 percent […]
Cocaine In Toys From Costa Rica Seized in Nicaragua A total of 334 kg of cocaine, which entered Nicaragua hidden in a shipment of candy and toys, was seized during the Christmas weekend, officials said. The cocaine, reportedly from Costa Rica, was seized at the Peñas Blancas border crossing in southern Nicaragua, judicial support director […]
It is a tradition for thousands of Costa Ricans and foreigners living in Costa Rica to head for the beaches and resorts, leaving their homes unprotected. A big mistake as crime does not take a holiday. If you are going to leave your neighborhood, if you cannot obtain a live-in-guard and you intend to go […]
Police in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco have found the decapitated, mutilated bodies of two men in front of a bar where 11 men were reportedly abducted earlier this month. Read Story
On Saturday evening, Dutch tourist Hans Janssen (54) was murdered by robbers while he and his wife Rianne were walking back from Henck Arronstraat to their guest house on Jesserunstraat. At the beginning of the street where it is pitch dark, a car was parked alongside the road. Read Article
At least 100 Nigerians have been arrested in Ecuador so far in 2010. Most of them have legal status in Ecuador under refugee status. A recent arrest of five Nigerians in an operation in Quito allowed four of the detained to be released because they did not have drugs on their person. The Nigerians are […]
Gustavo Luna, director of Inspections and Grounding under the Directorate of Migration, said in statements to Radio Fides that from January to date this year was expelled from the country more than 300 foreign nationals who were either irregularly in Bolivia by having a criminal record or not having documentation. Peruvian and Colombians were the […]
Security forces have this year arrested over 27,000 suspected drug gang members, as part of Mexico’s ongoing bloody military-led crackdown on cartel operations, officials said. Among the top captures for Mexican authorities were the arrests of drug kingpin Edgar Valdez, known as “the Barbie,” as well as the killings of Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, a top […]
The supposed kidnappers of 50 Central American migrants who disappeared in southern Mexico last week called a family in the United States demanding a ransom, a Roman Catholic priest who first reported the abductions said Thursday. Read Article
Brazilian police have busted 25 members of a 34-strong criminal gang in the slums around Rio de Janeiro. Some of the members are allegedly attached to local councils and the police force. Read Article
More than 30 inmates and prison guards have been injured in a riot at a jail in northern Chile. Four of those injured are now in hospital. Six members of the security forces were slightly hurt. Read Article
The Peruvian army has purchased a MicroFalcon UAV system from manufacturer Innocon of Israel. Read Article
A referendum on reforms to the new constitution and criminal law is to be held in Ecuador in response to the mounting public security crisis, giving left-wing President Rafael Correa an opportunity to canvass public opinion on these thorny issues. The date of the referendum and the wording of its questions are still unknown, but […]
Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced Monday the launching of operation “Guard Watch” with the deployment of 6.000 border guards throughout the Greater Buenos Aires with the purpose of combating the insecurity wave and putting an end to the rash of illegal occupation of open spaces by organized squatters. Read Article
Stuttgart – German police searched the offices of Heckler and Koch, a German manufacturer of premium firearms, on Tuesday over suspicions that its exports of rifles to Mexico may break German arms-export laws, prosecutors in Stuttgart said. German law forbids unlicensed exports to zones of conflict. Read Article
A newly revealed U.S. cable portrays American diplomats in the Caribbean as being so concerned about bribery and money-laundering rumors related to Texas financier R. Allen Stanford that they warned embassy officers to steer clear of him as early as 2006. Read Article
Mexican authorities say a relative of an anti-crime crusader gunned down last week as she tried to seek justice for her slain daughter also has been found dead. Read Article
At 11:00 am yesterday morning a 43 year old man was executed while on his motorcycle. A white vehicle pulled up alongs side the victim and began shooting. One of the gunment dressed in black exited the vehicle, went up to the victim and put a final bullet into his head. Read Article
RPP of Peru reported that a bigamist and his mistress were were nearly lynced in Piura Peru. The bigamist’s wife stated that she has been married nine years to her husband and the have two children. His wife made an attempt at stopping her husband from marrying his mistress in a civil ceremony. object width=”480″ […]
Faced with a poor education system and dismal job prospects, boys and girls as young as 11 are lured into acting as mules, peddlers, lookouts — even executioners — for drug cartels offering easy money. Read Article
A popular former Peruvian prime minister was beaten and robbed in Lima, in a sign that no one is entirely safe from crime on the streets of this South American capital. A gang of eight robbers punctured the tires of Javier Velasquez’s car on the outskirts of Lima before dragging him and his driver out […]
His name is Fr Miroslaw Karczewski and he was the 45 year old priest of the Convent of Friars Minor (OFM Conv) killed on the afternoon of Monday, 6 December in the rectory of the parish of St Anthony of Padua in Santo Domingo de Los Colorados (in Ecuador), in the north of the country, […]
Residents clash with squatters building a shanty town in the grounds of a Buenos Aires sports club. View Video
A car bomb explosion injured three people in front of a police station in the municipality of Zuazua in Nuevo Leon state of northern Mexico on Friday, authorities said. The explosion took place shortly after 1.00 p.m. local time and damaged a police motorcycle as well as three other vehicles which were parked nearby the […]
A mother campaigning to bring the confessed killer of her 16-year-old daughter to justice was herself gunned down Thursday night in view of a closed circuit television camera, leaving images that shocked Mexicans over the impunity of the killers. The murder of Marisela Escobedo unfolded Thursday night on the sidewalk in front of the governor’s […]
Nearly 150 inmates escaped Friday from a state prison in the northern Mexico border city of Nuevo Laredo, and authorities said the breakout was probably helped by prison employees. The public safety department of Tamaulipas state, where the prison is located near the border with Laredo, Texas, said 141 inmates got out through a service […]
Story submitted by Reader of Latinamericacurrentevents.com based in Ecuador: Last evening Beba Chattin, age 36, was walking on her way to pick up her daughter in the lower income neighborhood of La Chala in Guayaquil, Ecuador. A large black male approached her from behind and told her to stop. He wanted to know what she […]
The highest number of guns seized by police and military at Mexican crime scenes came from Houston-based Carter’s Country, the largest gun dealer in the region, according to the Washington Post investigation. In the last two years, more than 115 guns linked to Carter’s Country were found across the border, the paper reported. Read Article
Hundreds of doctors and other health-care workers here in Mexico’s murder capital went on a 24-hour strike Monday to demand more security in light of the murders of three colleagues and the kidnappings of 11 others this year. Just two of the more than 20 main clinics and hospitals in Ciudad Juarez, just across the […]
Through November 2010 there have been 211 reported cases of stolen identity. Read Article
The number of people arrested in connection with the storming last week of a prison in western Guatemala to free the main suspect in the kidnap-murder of a pro soccer player has risen to 16, the National Civilian Police, or PNC, said. Another Guatemalan suspected of belonging to Mexico’s Los Zetas drug cartel was arrested […]
Yesterday evening at the Guayaquil International Airport, customs agents were seen confiscating hundreds of pairs of shoes which were shipped in via air. It appeared that the items were brought in either without proper permissions or without declaring items. It has been a well known fact that the government has been making significant efforts at […]
Although Guayas has alarming rates of crime, the other provinces are not immune to this crime wave that generates violence and is responsible for 2,225 killings and assassinations nationwide between January and October. Nationwide figures are growing insecurity linked to drug trafficking, contract killings and crime, which generates an unprecedented violence in the streets. Read […]
In Ecuador, crime was growing in remote parts of the country where men in uniform were not properly armed for surveillance. The Government of Ecuador realized they were not only increasing their unsolved crimes, but it was also costing them more money to have post-crime actions than to invest in an established preventive measure. The […]
Now as Christmas approaches, mobsters have chosen a new target, turning their sights on humble schoolteachers. Painted threats scrawled outside numerous public schools demand that teachers hand over their Christmas bonuses or face the possibility of an armed attack on the teachers — and even the children. To make the point clear, assailants set fire […]
Dozens of doctors and medical students in white coats demonstrated near a busy international bridge to demand justice for one of their own, Dr. Jose Alberto Bentancourt Rosales, an Orthopedic surgeon. He was abducted last Thursday at a hospital where he worked. His family was negotiating a ransom. His body was found dumped on Sunday […]
The commander of the Bloque Guainía del Ejército Revolucionario Popular Antisubversivo de Colombia (Erpac), was taken into custody in a rural area of Arauca on Tuesday. ERPAC is considered to be one of three emerging gangs involved in drug trafficking in Colombia. Read Article
Close to 14,000 people were murdered in Venezuela last year and the figure could be significantly higher, a prominent human rights group said Thursday, alluding to the rampant crime that has become a central concern of Venezuelans. Venezuela has one of Latin America’s highest murder rates and the government has stopped releasing complete annual figures, […]
A Brazilian newspaper reported that drug traffickers control 70 percent of the marijuana plantations in Capitan Bado and Pedro Juan Caballero that are located in the Amambay department. These cities are located on the border with Brazil encompassing Mato Grosso do Sul. The First Commando da Capital (PCC) is believed to be the primary participant […]
Julio Cantalisio Rivera, lawyer for Diburcio Morales, an ex-drug cartel leader, and current mayor of Valle del Monzón, declares his client’s detention as practically a “kidnapping,” due to an absence of formal charges. “He was taken from his home in underwear [and] bleeding.” He claims the attitude against coco leaf growers (cocoleros) is due to […]
A bomb on a bus detonated by suspected leftist militants in southern Colombia Tuesday killed three army troops and a civilian and injured another 16 people, local authorities said. Read Article
INTERPOL’s databases and worldwide network enabled Portuguese police to identify, arrest and extradite to Bogota a fugitive attempting to enter the country using a stolen passport altered to camouflage the suspect’s criminal history in Colombia. View Article
Rio de Janeiro’s Governor Sergio Cabral asked Brazil’s Defense Ministry to keep 2,000 troops in Rio’s occupied shanty towns until October as the city tries to reduce violence ahead of the 2014 soccer World Cup. Read Story
A Dutch inmate murdered his Peruvian girlfriend on visiting day at Lima’s Lurigancho prison in August and buried her body in his cell, with the killing going undetected for three months, an official said. Jackson Sanford Staing confessed Sunday night that he murdered Leslie Dayana Paredes Silva at the prison. View Story
A detained leader of Mexico’s notorious Aztecas drug gang claims to have ordered 80 percent of the thousands of murders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez over the past two years, officials said Monday. View Story
The alleged killer of southern Italian mayor Angelo Vassallo is suspected mafia extortionist and drugs trafficker who is believed to be hiding in the Colombian city of Medellin – Read Full Article