HomeNewsGuatemala's Lorenzana Clan in Turmoil as Assassination Targets Third Generation
NEWS

Guatemala's Lorenzana Clan in Turmoil as Assassination Targets Third Generation

COCAINE / 10 MAR 2022 BY ALEX PAPADOVASSILAKIS EN

The recent assassination of a former drug lord's grandson may stem from disputes between members of a family clan already rocked by arrests and extraditions.

Hans Broiner Lemus Lorenzana, a 26-year-old scion of the Lorenzana drug clan, was gunned down by unidentified assailants early on March 2 at a restaurant in the eastern Zacapa province, according to reports in local press and which InSight Crime confirmed with the Attorney General's Office.

Authorities discovered over 80 bullets casings at the scene, according to a police report cited by Prensa Libre. Two others were killed in the attack – both believed to be Lemus Lorenzana’s bodyguards.

Lemus Lorenzana is the grandson of Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, one of Guatemala’s most powerful drug lords up until his arrest and subsequent extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges in the early 2010s. He died in a US prison last year while serving a life sentence for drug trafficking.

SEE ALSO: Betrayal in the Family Drug Business: The Lorenzanas in Guatemala

Guatemala authorities are still investigating the motive behind Lemus Lorenzana’s shooting, but initial theories point to possible disputes within the family clan.

“Our assumption is that it could be some kind of problem within the organization,” Alan Ajiatas, sub-director of the Attorney General's Office anti-narcotics unit, told InSight Crime. “It has all the characteristics of a settling of scores within [drug trafficking groups].”

He added, however, that it is too early to draw concrete conclusions.

Lemus Lorenzana's criminal past is murky. He had not faced any drug trafficking charges prior to his assassination. And according to Ajiatas, the Attorney General’s Office has no record of his prior detention for drug trafficking. However, local press reports indicate he was arrested in June 2013 while allegedly transporting cocaine in western Guatemala.

In recent posts on social media, Lemus Lorenzana alluded to his family’s ties to the drug trade. “When it’s in your blood what choice do you have,” he wrote in an Instagram post last December.

Lemus Lorenzana’s assassination comes less than a year after his mother, Marta Julia Lorenzana Cordón, and his uncle, Haroldo Jeremías Lorenzana Cordón, were extradited to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

The Lorenzana clan was formerly one of Guatemala’s most prominent drug rings. Based in Zacapa, the group trafficked vast quantities of cocaine to Mexico and the United States in partnership with powerful Mexican groups like the Sinaloa cartel, up until its leadership was hammered by a series of arrests in the early 2010s.

InSight Crime Analysis

If initial theories prove correct, Lemus Lorenzana’s murder could signal competition within the Lorenzana clan after leaders were detained.

“It’s about positioning and who will occupy certain posts left vacant within the group,” said Ajiatas in reference to one of the “stronger” hypotheses for the assassination.

“The dynamic is that someone within the same family is taking the lead,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Geographic Profile: Zacapa, Guatemala

Such transitions are nothing new for the Lorenzana clan. The group has undergone a series of internal reshuffles, most notably with the arrest and extradition of family patriarch Waldemar Lorenzana and two of his sons in the early 2010s, leaving the patriarch’s other children and relatives in charge of the family business.

This included Lemus Lorenzana’s mother and uncle – accused by US prosecutors of leading the family clan in the years after their father and siblings fell into the hands of US justice. Another of Waldemar Lorenzana’s grandsons, Haroldo Waldemar Lorenzana Terraza, is wanted by Guatemala and US authorities, elPeriódico reported.

Aside from provoking internal struggles, the numerous operations targeting the group’s leadership have also weakened its operations and scope, perhaps encouraging smaller drug rings to compete for the smuggling routes once dominated by the Lorenzanas.

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

BOLIVIA / 30 NOV 2022

Lake Titicaca serves as a crossroads for varied criminal economies, from cocaine shipments to trafficking the frogs that live along…

COCAINE / 6 MAY 2022

Venezuelan authorities have not offered much information about the recent capture of a drug smuggling submarine close to the border…

ELITES AND CRIME / 22 JUN 2023

Presidential frontrunner Edmond Mulet has run on a promise of change. But ties to candidates accused of corruption cast doubt…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

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…