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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Los Zetas Control Large Areas of Guatemala |
| 2010-12-25 |
| Google translate. I can't tell who wrote the original story, since it is sourced from Stratfor and the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute. I provide a partially rewritten translated excerpt; you'll need to rinse it through a translator to read it all. The cartel Los Zetas in three years has succeeded in controlling 75% of Guatemalan territory based on violence, its corrupting power and infiltration of institutions and firms according to intelligence reports and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to a document from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies on organized crime in Guatemala, at least 800 Mexican Los Zetas operatives are living in Guatemala. Team members have infiltrated police forces and sponsored public service, the report said. The study notes that the cartel took advantage of gaps in power and authority in several regions, which added their reckless practices. Recently a Los Zetas radio message invited all Guatemala Special Forces (Kabiles) to provide security to vehicles transporting merchandise to Mexico. I read a Mexican news report this past fall that Los Zetas are bringing into Mexico Guatemalan special forces people to train them in weapons, security practices and tactics Los Zetas use in transporting drugs to the US border. A little more detailed report on drug cartel practices in Spanish can be found here. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Guatemala is a strange little country. The northern half is jungle preserve, punctuated with towns. They had an ungodly long civil war, that lasted from 1960-1996. Half the people look like they came off a Mayan codex, and the other half look like ancient Olmecs. If the Germans managed the place, it would be heavenly. But the reason it exists, I think, is because the people just could not stand the people of Honduras, Belize or Mexico, nor could those peoples stand the Guatemalans. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-12-25 15:43 |