Guatemala reported eradicating more than $300 million worth of heroin poppy crops this week in San Marcos province, which borders on Mexico, in an indication of the growing value of this crop to the country's traffickers. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said that 2.4 billion quetzales ($308 million) of poppy was destroyed in the municipalities of Tajumulco and Ixchiguan, reports Prensa Libre. The 800 agents involved in the operation, which took place between Monday and Wednesday, also eradicated more than Q80 million ($10 million) of marijuana plants. The minister said that the government had destroyed drug crops worth more than $1.3 billion so far in 2012. InSight Crime Analysis The US State Department says that Guatemala is a minor, but growing, producer and exporter of opium ... Continue reading →

Mexican Marines made an alarming discovery during a raid in the northern border town of Piedras Negras: a clandestine workshop a used to make fake military uniforms. Acting on an anonymous tip, marines discovered hundreds of replica camouflage uniforms in the workshop, designed to mimic those of the armed forces. Authorities even found fake body armor, also fashioned to look like military gear. The navy maintains that the texture, design and colors of the fake uniforms were off, but photos of them (see above) appear close enough to the real thing that the untrained eye could easily be fooled. According to naval officials, the workshop was an attempt by an unspecified criminal organization to damage the reputation of the armed forces, which has already taken ... Continue reading →

JALISCO, Mexico and NEW YORK, New York — Standing in front of an industrial-sized oven, Francisco Villalobos watches gooey, golden amber hunks of roasted agave cactus run up a conveyer belt. Water drips over the gears of a crushing mechanism that squeezes out the sweet nectar, leaving behind fibers of brown husk. Men in blue coveralls sweep up the refuse fibers from the ground. The Sangre de Azteca (Aztec Blood) distillery is located in the mountainous state of Jalisco, in the heart of Mexico’s most important tequila producing region. “We make real tequila … it’s 100 percent agave,” says Villalobos, a distillation expert at the factory. Sangre de Azteca produces 9,000 bottles (1 liter on average) of pure, unadulterated tequila a day. Before it’s bottled, ... Continue reading →

On the second day of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, a panel of experts spoke on the role of state protection mechanisms for journalists in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala. Moderator Ewald Scharfenberg, the director of IPYS in Venezuela, said that he was surprised to be asked to moderate a panel on the subject because in Venezuela such a thing as state protection for journalists is unthinkable. “To think that a state would create these programs to protect journalists who they view as the enemy is amazing, but it is good to see that it is possible,” he said. Natalia Torres, the co-author of a Center of Studies of Freedom of Expression (CELE) report ... Continue reading →

After the killing of his family and five of his colleagues, Mexican reporter and photographer Miguel Ángel López Solana urged journalistic organizations to protect journalists in the state of Veracruz on Tuesday, May 22, during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, themed Security and Protection for Journalists and organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations. “I'm worried about my colleagues in Veracruz,” said the journalist, age 31, who lost his father, Miguel Ángel López Velasco, who was the news editor and columnist for the newspaper Notiver; his brother Misael López Solana, reporter for the same newspaper; and his mother, Agustina Solana, in June 2011 when armed individuals raided their house and shot them ... Continue reading →

dbonello 18 photos · 90 followers “El valemadrismo” Continue reading →

Are you sure you want to delete your account?You'll lose everything, forever!Of course not!Yes, delete it! Continue reading →