Worldcrunch
Paris Calling, Worldcrunch’s new podcast series, where each episode introduces you to a notable person, from somewhere in the world, in their own voice, in English. Today, we have Karol Noroña, an Ecuadorian investigative journalist who was forced into exile after her work on her country’s cartels led to death threats.
Former One Direction member Liam Payne, who died last after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, reportedly had “pink cocaine” in his system. Also known as “Tuci,” this “designer drug” has been spreading in Latin America and globally over the past decade.
Mexico’s ruling party has reformed the constitution, forcing judges to run for office, supposedly to make them accountable to the people. But given the country’s history and singular problem with crime, it may turn them instead into ordinary politicians vulnerable to bribery and mob terrorism.
The former U.S. president and Republican nominee Donald Trump is threatening to revive his choice policies of curbing immigration and trade, and nobody would suffer as a result quite as much as the hundreds of millions of Latin Americans who may be forced to turn toward China and the Global South.
Trafficking people, especially for sex, between Colombia and Mexico is rife and rising, buoyed in part by pervasive social and media contempt for the working-class girls who are among the chief victims.
A recent spike in gang violence in Rosario in central Argentina is prompting comparisons to the old breeding ground of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. But where would organized crime be, without the quiet connivance of a host of social and political actors?
January 22 – January 28, 2024
The three victims, 14 and younger, were contacted while playing the online game Free Fire, and promised paid work.
MEXICO CITY — Crime in Mexico related to gangs and drug cartels is believed to have shortened the lifespan of the country’s residents, according to a new study. The National Police report has found that life expectancy fell by one to six months in the five-year period beginning in 2005, as a veritable war began […]
QUITO — Stashes of cocaine kept in boats and dinghies in the remote Galápagos Islands. Dozens of operatives transporting narcotics on rivers across the border into Colombia. Over the past three years, powerful Mexican drug cartels have systematically moved supplies and operations into Ecuador. According to Quito-based daily El Comercio, at least four Mexican cartels […]
ACAPULCO — Before coming to Acapulco, I had heard many disturbing things about the city. For example, that six Spanish girls were brutally raped on the top floor of a beautiful beachfront villa last February as their boyfriends, handcuffed, were made to watch. That Acapulco had suddenly become the most violent city in Mexico — […]
BRUSSELS – You know, those spy movies of some bespectacled hero photographing secret files, looking up every few seconds to make sure there’s not a burly KGB agent around. One executive from the Degussa chemistry group found himself in such a scene in 2002, entering a fancy Zurich building with a camera in his hand, […]
TURIN – Music and organized crime are a duo that have gone hand-in-hand since way back when. Outlaws often see songs as a way to glorify what they do, creating legends that inspire as well as frighten the regions they come to dominate. The Mexico we hear about today is said to be held hostage […]
MEXICO CITY – My neighborhood dealer was a low-class guy. We went to the same public school, but he was few years younger than me. He was never very bright nor did he excel in anything; he spent his afternoons standing outside his house or at the street corner, without bothering anyone, and with no […]