What is the power of the gangs in Guatemala and what does the Arévalo government plan to dismantle them?

Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha are the two main gangs that commit crimes in Guatemala, mainly in the capital of the Central American country, where they have been controlling entire areas for around three decades.

Unlike El Salvador, where gangs were responsible for most organized crime, Guatemala must deal with something else: drug trafficking, which sometimes converges with gangs.

Almost half a year after assuming the presidency of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo recognized that there are communities in the Central American country that are prisoners of the gangs. But his strategy unlike that of El Salvadoris based on containing illicit gang activity in prisons and giving young people opportunities to prevent them from falling prey to these groups.

“We are collaborating with the international community to generate an impact in this sense,” Arévalo told local media on June 1. After the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child asked him to increase prevention measures to stop the recruitment of children by gangs and drug trafficking gangs.

Currently, the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are fighting for control of territories in Guatemala to demand money from transporters and merchants under the threat of murder if they refuse to agree to extortion.

According to the Infosegura Regional Project in 2023, 2,944 Guatemalans were murderedwhich is equivalent to a rate of 16.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

But the rate increases if it involves crimes against property. In 2023, 158 people per 100,000 inhabitants were victims of extortion, robberies and robberies. Extortion was one of the crimes with the highest incidence in 2023.

Guatemala has made it clear that it will not impose an emergency regime like its neighbor El Salvador, which since March 2022 declared a national emergency as a result of gang violence, and after the approval of Congress, modified criminal laws to toughen the punishment for These groups.

With the measure, El Salvador lowered its homicide rate to 2.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, and has dismantled the operational arm of the gangs in the neighborhoods after the capture of some 80,000 people accused of illicit groups.

Guatemala, on the other hand, has called “its first step” against insecurity to dismantle the control that the gangs have in prisons, starting with the maximum security prison El Infiernillo, where the government has used scanners to penetrate floors, walls and roofs to find drugs, cell phones and money.

“This was originally considered a maximum security prison, but over time it lost its status and today it was something that had nothing to do with security,” said the Minister of the Interior Francisco Jiménez on June 2.

Unlike El Salvador, gangs are not the main criminal phenomenon in Guatemala, a country that has to fight against drug trafficking allied to Mexican cartels.

“Guatemala’s criminal organizations are among the most sophisticated in Central America. Some have been operating for decades. “They include former members of the military, intelligence agencies, active members of the police, public officials and drug traffickers,” points out InSight Crime, a research center for criminal activities in Latin America.

These criminal organizations transport drugs to the north in addition to growing marijuana, poppy and coca. They also participate in human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, weapons smuggling, adoption networks, environmental crimes and other illegal activities.

How do gangs emerge in Guatemala and what areas do they control?

The gangs are a cross-border phenomenon that grew after the mass deportation of thousands of Central Americans living in the United States in the 1980s.

Founded in the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods of Los Angeles, California, the gangs returned to their countries of origin in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador where they quickly organized. Although extortion is one of the gang’s most common crimes, they are now known to also engage in more sophisticated transnational activities.

“In more than a dozen drug trafficking cases tracked by InSight Crime, gang members worked with networks outside the MS13 (Mara Salvatrucha) structure, primarily Mexican Mafia networks,” adds Insight Crime in a report on the MS13 published this year.

Given the fragile prison systems, the gangs grew and organized in Central American prisons, which allowed them to expand their capacity and followers.

According to the Guatemalan police, in that country the gangs have control mainly in zones 5, 6, 14, 16 and 18 of the capital, where the government has promised to increase the presence of the State.

Of course, they are not the only areas or neighborhoods controlled by gangs, but they are some areas where their presence has been more evident in recent years.

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