GUATEMALA CITY - He's Guatemala's top anti-narcotics investigator, and he's tired of fighting a losing battle. In an interview with The Associated Press, Adan Castillo said he plans to step down in December, after just six months on the job. "There are moments when you start to think you're swimming against the current," he said. "At those times, it's easy to think, 'If there aren't other institutions that can support me, if the government itself is weak in its responses, there's nothing left to do but leave it in God's hands.'" [continues 280 words]
LOS AMATES, Guatemala -- Starting as a small-time smuggler deep in the countryside, a trucking company boss has become Central America's most-wanted drug suspect, using platoons of pilots, fishermen and truck drivers to turn Guatemala's sliver of Caribbean coast into a major pipeline for Colombian cocaine. U.S. and Guatemalan officials say Otto Herrera succeeded in building a small but powerful smuggling gang because Guatemala's government did little in recent years to stop the drug trade. Now, facing increasing pressure from Washington, Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo is taking steps to crack down on drug smugglers. But even one of the country's top drug investigators acknowledges more needs to be done. [continues 406 words]
LOS AMATES Starting as a small-time smuggler deep in the countryside, a trucking company boss has become Central America's most-wanted drug suspect, using platoons of pilots, fishermen and truck drivers to turn Guatemala's sliver of Caribbean coast into a major pipeline for Colombian cocaine. U.S. and Guatemalan officials say Otto Herrera succeeded in building a small but powerful smuggling gang because Guatemala's government did little in recent years to stop the drug trade. Now, facing increasing pressure from Washington, President Alfonso Portillo is taking steps to crack down on drug smugglers. But even one of the country's top drug investigators acknowledges more needs to be done. [continues 613 words]
ZACAPA, Guatemala - An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 200 metric tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials. The increased flow - nearly triple the amount estimated a decade ago - has turned parts of Guatemala into lawless zones ruled by family-controlled transit cartels. [continues 374 words]
Corruption Fueling Drug Trade, Authorities Say ZACAPA, Guatemala - An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 200 metric tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials. The increased flow -- nearly triple the amount estimated a decade ago -- has turned parts of Guatemala into lawless zones ruled by family-controlled transit cartels, a development all too clear in this dry and dusty frontier state. [continues 707 words]
Deteriorating efforts to control cocaine and heroin trafficking in Guatemala have discouraged U.S. drug agents, who say the Central American country has become a major transshipment point for illicit narcotics bound for the United States. "Rampant corruption has made Guatemala an ideal choice for drug dealers looking to send cocaine and heroin north to the United States," said one key U.S. drug agent. "The traffickers are winning this battle, there's no question about that." The agent, who asked not to be identified, said a half-dozen Guatemalan crime syndicates have joined forces with drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico to move illicit narcotics through the country, nearly unchallenged by the government's scandal-plagued anti-drug authorities. [continues 463 words]
GUATEMALA CITY - In the three years since President Alfonso Portillo assumed office, Guatemala has emerged as one of the principal corridors in the hemisphere for U.S.-destined drugs - a new battleground in the war on drugs where the traffickers are winning. Where once there was little organized criminal activity, intelligence sources say, Guatemala now has five key "mafias" that have joined forces with Colombian and Mexican cartels to move drugs - primarily cocaine - by land, air and sea. "Guatemala is one of the largest cocaine transit countries in the world," Paul Simons, acting assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said this week. "Perhaps as much as 200 tons of cocaine passes through Guatemala every year en route to the U.S. market." [continues 1054 words]
GUATEMALA CITY - Long a mainstay of politics and business in Central America, corruption has taken on new life under the region's fledgling democracies and is more pervasive and corrosive than at any time in recent memory, analysts and diplomats say. For the most vulnerable countries, like Guatemala, barely six years from civil war, the problem is making it more difficult to consolidate law and order and gain popular trust in government. For the United States it is undermining the fight against drugs, contraband and illegal immigrants as politicians and former military officers who had been built up as cold war allies now trade on their influence to enrich themselves. [continues 1040 words]
GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala is hoping to avoid a cutoff of U.S. foreign aid with the anticipated censure by U.S. authorities over shipments of cocaine that have soared since President Alfonso Portillo took office three years ago. Top Stories The tiny Central American nation, which only recently emerged from a long civil war, received about $53 million in foreign aid from the United States last year, including $3.5 million tied to the war on drugs. Lately, however, U.S. officials here and in Washington have harshly criticized the current government's record on narcotics interdiction. [continues 440 words]
Guatemalan authorities are investigating whether escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera is behind recent assassination attempts on the family of a retired Guatemalan general. Police in Guatemala believe that "El Chapo" may be hiding there and are investigating whether he ordered revenge hits Wednesday on the daughter and wife of retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, the Reforma paper reported. The daughter was wounded and the wife unharmed. Press accounts say Perez orchestrated Guzman's capture in 1993. [end]
With Infusion Of Cash, Syndicates Gaining Against Authorities GUATEMALA CITY -- Powerful organizations that control smuggling, auto theft and arms trafficking in Central America are using those established networks to smuggle illegal drugs, U.S. and regional officials warn. The infusion of drug money is allowing criminal enterprises to become a parallel force that can threaten national security, worrying military and church officials as well as government authorities. "Our Central America has become a corridor for drugs, guns and religious art," said Bishop Mario R(acu)os Montt, director of the Archbishop's Office on Human Rights in this capital. Criminal organizations that control this illegal trade are becoming the major threat to human rights in a region that barely has left behind brutal military regimes, he said. [continues 624 words]
Narcotics: Smugglers, Flush With Profits From A New Contraband, Have Become A Formidable Force. GUATEMALA CITY--Powerful organizations that already control smuggling, auto theft and arms trafficking in Central America are using those established networks to transport illegal drugs, U.S. and regional officials warn. The infusion of drug money is allowing criminal enterprises to become a force that can threaten national security, worrying military and church officials as well as government authorities. "Our Central America has become a corridor for drugs, guns and [stolen] religious art," said Bishop Mario Rios Montt, director of the Archdiocese Office on Human Rights in this capital. Criminal organizations that control this illegal trade are becoming the major threat to human rights in a region that has barely left behind brutal military regimes, he said. [continues 815 words]
A crowd of 200 villagers burned to death eight men they accused of running guns and drugs in western Guatemala's highlands, police said yesterday. Roads were blocked to trap the men and the crowd pulled them from their trucks, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire, police said. [end]
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- A crowd of 200 villagers burned to death eight men they accused of running guns and drugs in western Guatemala's mostly Indian highlands, police reported yesterday. In what authorities described as a carefully planned attack late Saturday, roads were blocked to trap the men, and the crowd pulled them from their trucks, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. [end]
AS CONGRESS debates whether to approve $1.6 billion in aid to combat drugs (and guerrillas) in Colombia, many warn against the dangers of ``another Central America,'' i.e., deeper U.S. involvement in Colombia's civil war. Less visible, but equally dangerous, is the political and military re-involvement of the United States in Central America itself, threatening the precarious peace settlements that took years to negotiate. Since the end of the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, the United States has presented itself as a friend of peace and reconciliation. But recent moves by Washington prioritize the drug war over the peace accords, even increasing direct U.S. military presence for that purpose. [continues 673 words]
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) Lawmakers have voted to allow the U.S. Army to send about 40 soldiers with military hardware to join Guatemalan narcotics agents. After three hours of heated debate, senators from both of Guatemala's leading parties backed a measure late Thursday night that had been pushed by Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo and U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell. In addition to the soldiers, who will serve as advisers and provide logistical support, the United States will offer three helicopters and one naval vessel. No date has been set for the aid to arrive. [continues 154 words]
Drug Habit Drives Guatemala Street Youths GUATEMALA CITY -- To support her crack habit, 15-year-old Leslie Sandoval does what she can. "Sometimes I beg. Sometimes I rob," she says. "Or I get into cars with men." The number of Guatemalan street children working as prostitutes is rising and the booming use of crack cocaine is largely to blame, government and aid groups say. "It didn't used to be so hard for girls on the street to get drugs such as glue," says Arturo Echeverria, director of Casa Alianza, an advocacy group for street children. "But the higher price of crack has induced more children into prostitution." [continues 653 words]
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - To support her crack habit, 15-year-old Leslie Sandoval does what she can. ``Sometimes I beg. Sometimes I rob,'' she says. ``Or I get into cars with men.'' The number of Guatemalan street children working as prostitutes is rising and the booming use of crack cocaine is largely to blame, government and aid groups say. ``It didn't used to be so hard for girls on the street to get drugs such as glue,'' says Arturo Echeverria, director of the child advocacy group Casa Alianza. ``But the higher price of crack has induced more children into prostitution.'' [continues 734 words]
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (AP) - Opposing views of how the Western Hemisphere should deal with global economic crises marked the opening Sunday night of the Organization of American States' annual assembly. OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria urged foreign ministers and other leaders of the organization's 34 states to push ahead with free-market reforms. But the president of host Guatemala, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, urged caution, warning that if reforms don't start benefiting poorer countries, residents there could lose faith in democracy. [continues 296 words]
GUATEMALA CITY, March 10 (Reuters) - Central American nations on Wednesday joined forces to seek more U.S. funding for the war against the flow of drugs through their lands and seas to the United States. In a meeting with U.S. anti-drugs officials in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Belize said they would also press together for an improved exchange of intelligence to bolster their lines of defence against the narcotics trade. "What we want is that the region, with one voice, can ask the United States and also Europe for the help we so badly need," Guatemala's deputy interior minister, Salvador Gandara, told Reuters after an anti-drug meeting coinciding with a tour through Central America by President Bill Clinton. [continues 415 words]
Inside Guatemala
