Help us unmask organized crime in Latin America

Over the past quarter, we have been working intensively on the second season of From the Ground Up, which is now nearing completion. This new season will feature four episodes, each focused on a different country — Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Ecuador — offering a close look at how organized crime shapes lives and communities across the region.

We have completed the scripts for all four episodes and are currently in the recording phase, while also working with our team to design the promotion campaign and define the look and feel of the season. Each episode is built from stories gathered during fieldwork — conversations with people we met along the way, whose experiences bring depth and humanity to our reporting.

This podcast is built from fieldwork, and from the people and stories our team encounters while reporting. Donor support is essential to making that possible. It allows us to keep traveling, meeting human sources, and producing original, verified reporting that can reach wider audiences through audio storytelling. As we get ready to release this new season, we are grateful for the support that helps bring these stories to life.

At the same time, this process has helped us strengthen our capacity in audio production and experiment with different formats. As part of this effort, we continue to publish narrated stories. 

Links:

• Audio | InSight Crime
• Podcast Series | InSight Crime

With your support, InSight Crime continues to publish a new Narrated Story every single week — brief, impactful audio investigations that shine a light on the daily impact of organized crime across Latin America.

Each of these stories is narrated by our journalists and researchers, drawing directly from their fieldwork. They are available on our website and podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

One recent episode told the story of a small shopkeeper in Ecuador whose business was burned down after refusing to pay extortion. Her case is not unique — it reflects the fear and silence imposed by organized crime in many communities. By sharing her voice, and others like hers, we bring critical attention to stories that are often overlooked.

Thanks to your support, we’ve been able to sustain a consistent rhythm of weekly publication and strengthen our in-house audio production capacity. This has allowed us to experiment with new formats and storytelling techniques, broadening the ways we share our original reporting and verified information. Our goal is to reach more people — both in the region and beyond — with accurate, accessible stories that deepen public understanding of organized crime and its impact on everyday lives.

Links:

• https://open.spotify.com/show/3DdNcFZPuIKA8teHeccqI4?si=21ef0e9e92724b79