The kidnapping of migrants who travel through Mexico on their way to the United States has become a “systematic and generalized” practice by organized crime groups such as the Zetas, who demand ransom payments from families or recruit them into their ranks, according to a new report.
The FARC has announced that captured journalist Romeo Langlois, who is reportedly being held by one of the group's biggest drug trafficking fronts, will be released soon.
Kidnapping in Guatemala dropped some 42 percent between 2008 and 2011 by the count of one NGO, which may be due to the increased number of cases being brought to trial instead of languishing in the court system.
With the abduction of 36 gas workers in Peru, released days later under mysterious circumstances, the Shining Path’s southern faction have demonstrated that they are still a force capable of carrying out high-level operations.
A diplomat at the Costa Rican Embassy in Caracas has been found safe two days after he was kidnapped by gunmen, in the latest in a rash of attacks on high-profile individuals in Venezuela.
Colombia's largest rebel army has freed the last of the police and soldiers it has been holding hostage, sparking talk of peace talks while also shifting focus to its remaining kidnapping victims.
Mexico's government announced that the country's police had liberated more than 4,000 kidnap victims in the last two years, an impressive number, but one that also points to the scale of the problem.
In spite of a security surge by the Paraguayan military, the country’s elusive rebel army is rapidly gaining momentum, having dramatically stepped up its operations last year.
The San Diego trial of two gang members once linked to the Tijuana Cartel is a reminder that Mexican groups have long used the city as a base. However, this group was arguably in the unusual position of finding it safer to operate on US rather than Mexican soil.
The announcement that Colombia's FARC, the region's oldest and largest insurgency, would halt kidnappings was greeted with mixed emotions. But while the skeptics seem to outnumber the optimists, the new strategic and economic reality of the rebels leaves room for hope.
