HomeNewsBriefZetas Fight Sinaloa Cartel for Guatemala Drug Routes: Perez
BRIEF

Zetas Fight Sinaloa Cartel for Guatemala Drug Routes: Perez

GUATEMALA / 14 JAN 2013 BY MIRIAM WELLS AND HANNAH STONE EN

In comments that highlight the power of Mexican trafficking organizations within Guatemala, President Otto Perez said that the Zetas gang controlled two of the country’s biggest drug routes, and were fighting the Sinaloa Cartel for the third.

In an interview with AFP marking the end of his first year in power, Guatemalan leader Perez said that Mexican cartels continued to expand their presence in his country, and were working to penetrate state institutions and recruit ex-soldiers.

The president said that the Zetas were interested in recruiting former members of elite counter-insurgency group the Kaibiles (of which Perez himself was a member), because the soldiers have “not just preparation, but discipline and military training that could help [the Zetas] with illegal activities."Guatemala routes

According to Perez, the Zetas control a trafficking route through Peten province, another route which runs through the center of the country, and are fighting the Sinaloa Cartel for control of a route near the Pacific ocean (see map).

Perez also said that members of the two principal mara gangs in the region, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, collaborated with the Mexican cartels but were not fully integrated into them, as some reports have suggested.

InSight Crime Analysis

As set out by an 2011 InSight Crime investigation, the Zetas have been operating in Guatemala since 2007, seeking the huge profits available from controlling drug trafficking routes through the Central American nation, and fleeing a crackdown by Mexican authorities.

Since then the group has turned Guatemala into one of its primary areas of operation, using its characteristic aggressive expansionist tactics, and employing brutal measures to gain control over territory.

Perez’s claims about the dispute over the Pacific route are backed by a report from Mexico’s El Universal published in September, which said that the Zetas were moving to take control of trafficking routes through San Marcos province, which borders on Mexico and the Pacific ocean, and had traditionally been controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel.

Despite incursions from the Zetas, Guatemala remains an important operational base for the Sinaloans. In recent years the cartel has pushed much of its methamphetamine production into Guatemala, and continues to traffic cocaine through the country in collaboration with local groups. 

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

GUATEMALA / 7 FEB 2022

In this run-down neighborhood in Guatemala City, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) does not exist. And yet, there are still a…

MEXICO / 18 OCT 2021

Gunmen have gone on a shooting spree of police surveillance cameras in the Mexican city of Culiacán – attacks that…

CANADA / 13 DEC 2021

The story of the Mexican cartels and their influence abroad has mostly focused on the United States. But a number…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…