Two agents of Guatemala's National Civil Police force (PNC) were ambushed and killed Wednesday by gunmen who authorities say were Mexican drug traffickers. A third officer was gravely wounded.
The PNC unit was on routine patrol in Huehuetenango department, near the border with the Mexican state of Chiapas, when it encountered a convoy of vehicles traveling down the Inter-American highway. Guatemala is divided into 22 regional departments, which are smaller than U.S. states but larger than most of its counties. The area is directly south of the Yucatán peninsula (map below).
Police say the number and type of vehicles driven by the heavily armed men, together with the caliber of weapons they used in the assault, leaves no doubt as to the nature of their business. Cartel operatives are thick in the region.
The attack was further evidence that Mexico's drug war is shifting southward into Central America, as traffickers and criminal gangs flee relentless pressure from Mexican armed forces. Today marks the beginning of the 75th month of the conflict, launched Dec. 11, 2006 by former president Calderón.
Wednesday's ambush occurred very close to an area where Guatemalan authorities reported the possible death of Sinaloa Cartel boss El Chapo Guzmán last week. The reports proved to be based on unfounded rumor. Enrique Peña Nieto: "I'm not able to confirm the death of El Chapo Guzmán".
Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina and the country's ambassador to Mexico, Fernando Díaz-Duran, have expressed serious concern about security in their country, especially along its border with Mexico, where criminal elements operate at will. Neighboring Honduras faces the same problem. Guatemalan ambassador warns of growing Los Zeta drug cartel presence in his country.
Last September the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the Mexican drug caretel Los Zetas is the "dominant force" in Central America, and has a foothold in Belize.
Guatemala's National Civil Police force is a highly trained paramilitary contingent which focuses on providing security in remote rural regions. Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, is committed to creating a very similar force in this country. The national gendarmerie, as it's called, will eventually have 40,000 agents. In December Peña Nieto asked Mexico's House of Deputies to appropriate $116 million dollars for preliminary funding of the gendarmerie. It will begin operations with 10,000 officers.
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The Chiapas-Guatemala frontier, increasingly a drug war hot zone, is but a day's drive from Mérida
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