Drug trafficking and corruption: common grounds in Latin American countries
Drug trafficking has changed in Guatemala. The large groups that controlled the business over the years have split, giving space to smaller groups. These are made up of public security forces members, politicians and criminals, who try to gain control over land and sea routes in areas of the country with little state presence.
In Guatemala, the most important criminal business continues to be drug related, specifically cocaine trafficking. The country was once a main sea port in the cocaine routes, but now there are also land routes that cross from Honduras with production coming from Colombia and Venezuela and headed to Mexico, to then cross into the United States, the major market for the substance.
The business in these territories is currently controlled by political groups and by parts of families that have ruled these areas for years. The larger organizations have given way to smaller cells which share the control of the rural geography.
These smaller players have gained power and now include members of the local governments, elements of the security forces and politicians. This mixture has turned them into very powerful groups with an influence even larger than that of the major drug traffickers in the region.
Corruption, which has been deeply rooted in this country’s institutions, has enabled the coexistence of commercial facilities, such as ports, with the infrastructure necessary for the business of drug trafficking, cocaine cultivated areas, drug production facilities and clandestine landing areas.
Criminal families, government officials, politicians and members of the security forces have teamed up to make sure that the impunity is maintained in areas of the country different to the capital city.
It has been noted that in this area of Central America, the lack of control from the centers of power, have enabled local politicians to strike alliances with criminals in exchange for economic benefits.
Giving more power and organization to the political structure of the country is the first step necessary to be able to form a front against the challenges brought by criminal organizations and corruption. This is a long-term program that requires both internal and international cooperation.