InSight Crime Podcast | From the ground up

In our last episode of this season we explore the incredible life of Raúl Mijango, the rebel turned congressman turned gang mediator turned inmate who personified what has since become a lost cause in El Salvador: negotiating with street gangs. And, ironically, may have been one of the first victims of a controversial, hard line strategy that has since led to the incarceration of tens of thousands of Salvadorans. This was the last episode of our first season of InSight Crime’s Podcast. Let us know your thoughts in the comments! At InSight Crime [https://insightcrime.org/], we investigate from the ground up, inspired by the idea that organized crime is not a boring multisyllabic expression or yet another true-crime story from the suburbs, but a matter of life and death for millions of people across the Americas.

Judge Ivana David has been working in the Brazil's prison system for 30 years, which gave her a front row seat to the emergence of the PCC. Its rise startled Brazil and beyond, but it is was not anomaly. In fact, it is part of a region-wide trend where prison-based criminal groups dominate the underworld in the Americas. More about the PCC and our coverage on prisons and gangs at ⁠insightcrime.org [https://insightcrime.org/]

Abraham Barberi is a walking paradox. He is from Mexico but lives in the United States. He does missionary work but plays guitar in a death metal band. He is a Baptist pastor but advocates for migrants and asylum seekers. This is the story of how he navigates these contradictions in Matamoros, the birthplace of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and one of the country’s most dangerous cities. Sociedad Demente, by My place Was Taken. [https://youtu.be/rv7PINVJcgE?feature=shared]

On June 20, 2023, at least 46 inmates were killed by members of the 18th Street gang at Honduras’ National Female Penitentiary for Social Adaptation, in what was one of the deadliest massacres ever recorded in a women’s prison in Latin America. But it wasn’t the first massacre in this prison. Three years earlier, six women, allegedly linked to the MS13, also lost their lives at the hands of the 18th Street gang there. InSight Crime tells the stories of two rival gang members inside this prison, who, despite coming from very similar contexts, are ready to engage in a war with each other. More about this story at ⁠insightcrime.org [http://insightcrime.org/]

In Colombia, farming coca for cocaine production provides an alternative livelihood in the midst of poverty and state abandonment. At the same time, coca cultivation brings a curse. Behind the coca trade are armed groups, massacres, murders, and displacements. This dichostomy can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand, as Ana has done. Through her story, InSight Crime explores the evolution of organized crime in Putumayo, Colombia — and how, despite promises of peace, coca continues to affect the fate of an entire department. More about this story and our coverage of coca, cocaine, and organized crime in Colombia at insightcrime.org [http://insightcrime.org/]