Narco Corruption in Guatemala

Guatemala functions as the world’s primary cocaine corridor, with ~90% of US-bound cocaine passing through Central America. The country’s organized crime landscape is shaped by its civil war (1960–1996), in which military and intelligence structures (CIACS) later morphed into or allied with trafficking organizations. Los Zetas recruited elite Kaibil commandos (the same unit that committed civil war atrocities) and at peak controlled 75% of Guatemala’s drug trade.

The UN-backed CICIG (2007–2019) produced 1,540 indictments and contributed to the arrest of President Otto Pérez Molina, but was shut down by President Morales after it investigated his family.