The city of Machala is dotted with posters of Ecuador’s two presidential candidates, their smiling faces looking out over shuttered businesses and streets that empty out after 6 p.m. because of rival gangs that torment the city. Machala, a port…
Tag: Gangs
The Trump Envoy Who Got Close to the ‘World’s Coolest Dictator’
Soon after he took up his post in El Salvador, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson forged an unusually close relationship with the country’s president. President Trump had nominated Mr. Johnson in 2019 as his ambassador to the country shortly after the…
Haiti Doesn’t Make Guns. So How Are Gangs Awash in Them?
A video that circulated widely on the internet recently showed a Haitian gang leader, Joseph Wilson, shirtless, happily showing off belts of .50 caliber ammunition, mockingly saying he used the armor-piercing bullets to groom his hair. “We have enough combs…
Venezuelan Families Fear for Relatives as Trump Celebrates Deportations to El Salvador
According to Ms. Casique, her son had no gang affiliation and had entered the United States to seek asylum in late 2023 after several years spent working in Peru to support his family back home. During his journey north, he…
What Is Tren de Aragua?
President Trump’s executive order on Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act targeted Venezuelan citizens 14 years and older with ties to the transnational gang Tren de Aragua, saying they “are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien…
Haiti’s Biggest Hospital, Dependent on U.S.A.I.D., Is Set on Fire by Gangs
Two days before last Christmas, Dr. Pierre S. Prince took an exciting new job as director of Haiti’s largest public hospital, which the United States spent tens of millions of dollars renovating and is so deep in gang territory that…
Kenyan Police Officer Deployed to Tackle Gangs in Haiti Killed
A Kenyan police officer was fatally injured in Haiti on Sunday in an operation that was part of the international effort to help combat gang violence and restore order to the Caribbean nation, officials said. It appears to be the…