Nicolás Maduro has been removed. So why hasn’t Venezuela’s organized crime problem disappeared with him? Because the system was never built around one person.

Over decades, criminal economies became embedded in Venezuela’s political institutions, security forces, and territory. Drug trafficking networks, illegal mining groups, prison gangs, guerrillas, and state officials became interconnected parts of what InSight Crime calls a “hybrid state.”

Even if the faces at the top of the regime have changed, the machinery underneath is far harder to dismantle.

Our latest video explains how organized crime evolved in Venezuela, and what needs to happen to truly weaken the country’s criminal networks and economies.