Danger in Guatemala

The battle to regain control of Guatemala’s institutions from deeply entrenched criminal interests has reached an alarming new juncture. Two weeks ago, the head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-led commission to investigate and prosecute high-profile organized crime and corruption, resigned in frustration.

Since January 2008, the CICIG has made progress in fighting organized crime. Under the leadership of respected Spanish jurist and expert organized crime prosecutor Carlos Castresana, the commission has successfully prosecuted dozens of corrupt high-level officials, and its work has led to the arrest of ex-military officers and the dismissal of hundreds of dirty cops.

Now, Castresana says he can do no more because Guatemalan government inaction and corruption have made his job impossible. He singled out recently named attorney general, Conrado Reyes, with alleged links to organized crime who had been undermining the commission’s investigations. Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, in a courageous move, removed Reyes, but government corruption and growing influence of organized crime remains.

The transnational nature of this organized crime has made fighting it hard. In addition to the criminal structures that date back to the country’s civil war, Guatemala is feeling the impact of the sprawling organized crime wars in Mexico. Narcotics traffickers and their enforcers, including the notorious Zetas, are moving into Guatemala. No longer relying solely on narcotics, these organizations have diversified into other criminal activities, including extortion, human trafficking and arms sales. Recent intelligence reports also suggest that corrupt Guatemalan military officers are selling weapon stores left over from the Cold War, so even as U.S. authorities cut down on arms trafficking from the U.S. into Mexico, the Guatemalans are picking up the slack.

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Morris Panner, CEO of TownFlier, is a Senior Advisor at Harvard University Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a member of the board of directors of the Washington Office on Latin America. Previously, he was a Federal Prosecutor in Manhattan and Resident Legal Advisor in the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.