Latin America Daily Security Brief

La Opinión (Norte de Santander) reported April 17 that Catatumbo is living through one of the worst moments of armed conflict in its entire history — now 15 months since the ELN-FARC dissident war ignited in January 2025. Fresh fighting between ELN forces and the 'Calarcá' FARC dissidents was reported in the corregimientos of Pacheli, Campo II, and La Gabarra, with mass displacement and civilian confinement ongoing as of this morning.

CAMBIO Colombia reported April 16 that children in the Catatumbo are living in constant fear of forced recruitment by both ELN and FARC dissident factions. The Colombian military has identified 13 critical conflict flashpoints nationwide, with Catatumbo and Cauca topping the list. A teenager was seized by ELN on April 7 and has not been returned to his family, per El País.

Violence is spreading west. In Popayán (Cauca), an attack on an Urbaser waste-collection vehicle prompted the company to suspend garbage collection services entirely. ELN and FARC dissidents are now both confirmed operating in Popayán's rural periphery, according to local councilmembers cited by El País Colombia.

Infobae reports that Colombian armed groups are pioneering drone warfare: 'drone schools' operated by armed factions are training fighters in unmanned aerial systems use, representing a qualitative military upgrade that security forces are struggling to counter.

On the diplomatic front, a border incident on the Putumayo River is generating friction with Peru. A Colombian boat captain was killed and others wounded or detained when Peruvian naval units conducted a patrol operation. Colombia's Defense Ministry is pushing for a binational judicial-military commission to investigate whether Peruvian forces crossed into Colombian territory during the operation, per El País and Infobae.

Venezuelan crude exports to the United States have reached approximately 250,000 barrels per day following the January U.S. military intervention and Maduro's removal, according to reporting cited by Reuters, BBC, and CBS. Chevron has projected that number will climb to 400,000 bpd in the near term — a seismic shift in Western Hemisphere energy flows.

Repsol is now moving to retake operational control of Venezuelan oil assets it previously held under joint venture arrangements with the Maduro government. This is one of the first concrete foreign-investment moves in the post-Maduro environment and signals that European energy majors are positioning early, per wire reports from kdhnews and hometownregister citing Reuters.

Venezuela has declared an economic emergency as U.S. sanctions continue to bite, even as the political transition unfolds. The oil sector, which plummeted under two decades of socialist mismanagement and corruption, is the central variable in any economic recovery scenario.

Cuba is absorbing a direct knock-on effect. With Venezuelan oil exports now redirected primarily to the U.S. rather than Havana, Cuba's energy crisis is worsening. Cuban President Díaz-Canel stated publicly that Cuba does not seek U.S. aggression but is prepared to fight if necessary. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla separately asserted Cuba's right to trade fuel with any country without external interference — a pointed response to U.S. pressure, per Granma.

The Pentagon has drafted plans for a military assault on Cuba, according to the World Socialist Web Site, as the Trump administration escalates its hemispheric pressure campaign. The plans follow months of growing tension between Washington and Havana over Cuba's refusal to accept U.S. demands for political liberalization and prisoner releases.

Cuba's energy situation is deteriorating in direct proportion to the Venezuelan oil disruption. The island's government is publicly asserting its right to procure fuel internationally, signaling it is actively seeking alternative suppliers to replace Venezuelan volumes — likely Russia or Mexico, though neither has confirmed new arrangements.

The U.S. State Department announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of two brothers identified as leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel in Baja California, which includes Tijuana. The announcement came as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, publicly praised the Sheinbaum government's cooperation in dismantling cartel structures, per El País.

U.S. law enforcement raided the Houston offices of fuel trader Ikon Midstream as part of an expanded crackdown on illicit fuel networks tied to Mexican cartels. Reuters reports that smuggled fuel and stolen crude oil have become the second-largest cartel revenue source after narcotics. The operation illustrates how cartel financial infrastructure now extends well into U.S. commercial territory.

U.S. Treasury sanctioned a Nuevo Laredo casino linked to Cartel del Noreste (CDN), a Los Zetas successor operating in northeastern Mexico. The sanctions target CDN members and associates involved in drug trafficking, human smuggling, and border violence.

CBP officers at the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry made back-to-back major seizures — over $2.8 million in hard narcotics at Otay Mesa and more than $1.15 million in cocaine (60+ pounds) hidden in a trusted traveler's vehicle at San Ysidro. The trusted-traveler interdiction is operationally significant: it indicates cartels are actively compromising enrolled program participants.

Mexico's Security Cabinet met April 16 to review strategy in Sinaloa, where post-El Mencho CJNG fragmentation continues to drive violence. Separately, Querétaro state officials are publicly promoting the state as a security success story — homicide figures down significantly — though analysts note the improvement may reflect displacement of violence rather than suppression.

The U.S. Treasury's OFAC sanctioned a state-controlled gold export network tied to the Ortega-Murillo government, naming two of President Ortega's sons and Energy and Mines Minister Salvador Mansell Castrillo as key nodes. The sanctions target what OFAC describes as a corrupt government-run scheme funneling gold revenues to the ruling family, per Centroamérica360.

The gold sanctions add to an already comprehensive U.S. sanctions architecture against the Ortega government and are likely to further constrict Nicaragua's foreign exchange earnings. Gold has been one of the few export sectors generating hard currency for Managua.

InSight Crime confirmed the April 6 arrest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia of Jorge Isaac Campaz Jiménez, alias 'Mapaya' — the leader of the Espartanos, one of Colombia's most powerful Pacific coast criminal organizations. The arrest is significant: it is direct evidence that Colombian armed groups are not just expanding northward toward Central America but are also pushing south into the Andean cone.

InSight Crime notes the Espartanos have connections to networks operating in Chile as well, suggesting Santa Cruz may be functioning as a logistics and money-laundering node for Pacific cocaine flows heading toward Southern Cone markets. Bolivian authorities made the arrest; the circumstances of how Mapaya arrived in Bolivia have not been fully disclosed.

Suspended electoral council member Marlon Ochoa has fled Honduras and requested asylum abroad, according to opposition legislator Marco Ramiro Lobo (Libre party), citing fears for his life. The departure of a suspended electoral official — amid ongoing political tensions inside the ruling Libre coalition — adds to the instability picture around Honduras's 2025-2026 electoral cycle.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández's 45-year U.S. prison sentence for cartel protection continues to reverberate politically. The case, covered by multiple outlets this week, has become a reference point in regional discussions about narco-state accountability.

InSight Crime's two-day-old deep investigation into Corcovado National Park documents how cocaine trafficking is now directly fueling illegal gold mining inside Costa Rica's protected areas. Park rangers are outgunned and under-resourced, operating without adequate support from the central government.

InSight Crime's broader 'On the Radar' analysis (published 21 hours ago) flags Costa Rica as part of a regional trend: as cocaine flows increase and trafficking organizations seek to diversify and launder revenues, illegal mining is becoming a secondary criminal economy attached to the drug trade. Costa Rica's protected-area geography makes it a target of opportunity.

InSight Crime's 'On the Radar' report published today identifies a Colombia-Ecuador trade dispute as actively creating new criminal opportunity along their shared border. Contraband flows are increasing as legitimate trade channels are disrupted, with trafficking organizations exploiting the regulatory friction.

The analysis connects this border dynamic to the broader regional cocaine picture: Ecuador remains a primary transshipment country, and any weakening of bilateral trade enforcement coordination creates gaps that organized crime immediately fills. This is a story to watch as diplomatic tensions between Bogotá and Quito continue.

Alexandre Ramagem, Brazil's former intelligence agency chief and a key figure in the alleged 2022 coup plot against President Lula, was released from U.S. ICE detention after two days and publicly thanked President Trump on release, per AP. Ramagem faces a 16-year prison sentence in Brazil for his role in the coup attempt. The circumstances of his ICE detention — and the political implications of his Trump-aligned public statements — are being closely watched by Brasília.

Brazil's femicide rate is rising sharply, with New Internationalist citing a significant upward trend and noting that links between organized crime, police, and politicians remain entrenched despite arrests in the Marielle Franco case.

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Lula launched a joint international front in Barcelona against what they described as a global far-right wave, explicitly naming Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador alongside the U.S. as part of the trend they are organizing against. This signals Lula is actively building a counter-bloc within Latin America, per El País.

New testimony in the U.S. trial of suspects in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is providing additional detail on the financing of the operation. Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar (already sentenced to life) testified that he provided over $50,000 for the operation, including bribes to presidential security personnel. Colombian businessman Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, linked to the security firm that recruited the mercenaries, remains among the defendants, per Noticias Caracol.

U.S. Southern Command confirmed another lethal strike in the eastern Pacific, killing three people aboard a vessel it described as operated by 'Designated Terrorist Organizations.' Per CBS News and Pentagon statements, the strike is part of a daily operational tempo against narco-trafficking routes. Spanish-language outlet MPV reports that Trump administration strikes in the region have now totaled 53 operations with up to 178 deaths — figures that human rights organizations say may constitute extrajudicial executions under international law.

The U.S. delivered eight patrol boats to Paraguay to reinforce security on the Paraguay-Paraná waterway, under a SOFA agreement that also permits temporary U.S. military personnel presence in the country for training. The transfer, reported by Infobae, reflects Washington's effort to build partner-nation maritime enforcement capacity along South America's interior river systems.

Military and law enforcement forces from Central America, the Dominican Republic, and the United States held a joint rapid-response exercise focused on narcotrafficking, organized crime, illegal migration, and arms trafficking. El Salvador's Defense Minister René Francis Merino highlighted the exercise's focus on border threat vectors, per regional media.