HomeNewsAnalysisGuatemala Presidential Candidate Solicited Sinaloa Cartel for Campaign Cash: US
ANALYSIS

Guatemala Presidential Candidate Solicited Sinaloa Cartel for Campaign Cash: US

ELITES AND CRIME / 18 APR 2019 BY PARKER ASMANN EN

US authorities have charged a Guatemalan presidential candidate with soliciting campaign funds from Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and even asking the group to assassinate his rivals, in a case that highlights that politics in Guatemala, despite efforts to clean it up, remains a seriously dirty business.  

Prosecutors say Mario Amilcar Estrada Orellana was seeking between $10 million and $12 million from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for providing “state-sponsored support” for the group's drug trafficking activities, according to a federal indictment unsealed April 17.

Estrada, a candidate with the center-right National Change Union (Unión del Cambio Nacionalista -- UCN) political party, and another man, Juan Pablo González Mayorga, were both arrested at the Miami Airport on drug trafficking and weapons charges, authorities said. For the past four months, the pair plotted to win the election with drug money provided by two purported Sinaloa Cartel members, who were in fact criminal informants working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

Estrada pledged “unfettered access” to Guatemala’s airports and ports to transport drugs, and he also offered to appoint members of the powerful drug trafficking organization to “high-ranking government positions” if he were to win the election, according to the indictment. 

González also reportedly asked if the informants could “assassinate [at least two] political rivals” using “lots of AK-47 [rifles]” that he would provide to carry out the hits.

 SEE ALSO: Guatemala News and Profile

In exchange for facilitating the movement of six cocaine-laden planes through the country en route to the United States, the cartel was to send millions of dollars in drug money via a yacht supplied by Estrada. That way, Estrada told the informants, he could deliver a “sizeable amount of money” to each of Guatemala’s 22 districts, allowing him to secure enough votes to win the upcoming June election, according to the indictment. 

Estrada is no stranger to politics or controversy. He was a congressman for many years before creating his UCN party in 2006. He unsuccessfully ran for president in 2007, 2011, 2015 and again in 2019. The United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG) previously investigated Estrada and his party in 2015 for alleged illicit campaign financing and links to drug trafficking.

For its part, the US Embassy in Guatemala branded the UCN a "narco party" in a 2011 WikiLeaks cable. The daughter of Gloria Torres, one of Estrada’s UCN running mates in 2015, is also alleged to have links to Waldemar Lorenzana, the former leader of one of Guatemala’s most notorious drug trafficking clans. Other UCN party members have been linked to convicted drug traffickers like Marllory Chacón Rossell.

If convicted, Estrada and González could both face life in prison in the United States.

InSight Crime Analysis

Estrada's brazen attempt to solicit drug money to win Guatemala's presidential election shines a light on how dirty cash has infiltrated the country's political system.

Though not a frontrunner in the race, Estrada stressed that he “needed funding from a drug cartel to be competitive," which speaks volumes, given that it wasn’t long ago that Mexican criminal groups like the feared Zetas cartel were relying on extreme violence to exert control in Central American countries, including Guatemala. 

“I think Estrada’s case confirms the way in which many political parties [in Guatemala] fund their campaigns, and demonstrates the continued co-optation of the state,” Guatemalan journalist Sofía Menchú told InSight Crime.

Allegations of illicit campaign financing and links to organized crime groups have clouded Guatemalan politics for years now.

The CICIG and Attorney General’s Office are currently investigating President Jimmy Morales for alleged illicit financing during his successful 2015 campaign. His predecessor, President Otto Pérez Molina, resigned before authorities arrested  him and then-Vice President Roxana Baldetti for allegedly leading a customs fraud scheme that netted the pair millions of dollars in kickbacks. He was also accused of receiving illicit campaign funds.

SEE ALSO: Guatemala Elites and Organized Crime

Prior to Molina, Álvaro Colom was elected president of Guatemala in 2007 with the help of dubious political operatives who reportedly received critical financial support from organized crime groups in Guatemala and Mexico, including the Zetas.

Led by current President Morales, Guatemala's elites have recently struck back against the anti-corruption drive headed by the CICIG and Attorney General’s Office, effectively causing a constitutional crisis earlier this year after Morales ousted CICIG Commissioner Iván Velásquez and ordered the commission’s agents to leave the country.

"The main interest of the government in power is to roll back or undermine the actors and institutions that have been so key in fighting corruption [in Guatemala]," said Jo-Marie Burt, an associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

The latest revelations also come as the United States sends mixed signals about its commitment to fighting corruption in Central America, specifically in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. 

While US anti-drug authorities continue to make high-profile arrests linked to Central American governments, a recently released US government "blacklist" of corrupt Central American government officials failed to name anyone who hadn't been previously sentenced for their crimes.

The current US administration "doesn't really care about corruption in Central America," Burt added. "It's frustrating to see that even with the incredible progress made by the CICIG and Attorney General's Office, these problems haven't been resolved."

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BELIZE / 9 NOV 2021

While contraband cigarettes are a mainstay across Latin America, Belize has confirmed its status as a major port of entry…

METHAMPHETAMINE / 28 FEB 2022

After the seizure of 700 gallons of liquid methamphetamine in a Texas border town, it’s clear that traffickers are using…

COLOMBIA / 28 JUL 2021

Mexico's largest criminal groups are outsourcing the retrieval of cocaine shipments to smaller groups posing as fishing cooperatives, providing another…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

All Eyes on Ecuador

2 JUN 2023

Our coverage of organized crime in Ecuador continues to be a valuable resource for international and local news outlets. Internationally, Reuters cited our 2022 Homicide Round-Up,…

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.