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Caribbean & Central America - June 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

REGION: Drug gangs in Centam – a snapshot

The massacre of 27 rural labourers in Guatemala (see pgs 5-6), believed to have been carried out by the Mexican drug gang Los Zetas, has once again brought concerns over the penetration of large drug trafficking organisations in Central America to the fore. The traditional transportistas, as those transporting drugs produced by Colombian gangs to their Mexican ‘distributors’ are locally known, have now also become local distributors and in some cases, they have even become suppliers of primary inputs for the production of synthetic drugs. This shift in the Central American gangs’ involvement in the trade, in conjunction with the move by Mexican drug gangs to increase their involvement in the shipment of cargo from South America to Mexico, has increased the risk of intra-gang confrontation, meaning that, with the benefit of hindsight, this massacre may well in the future be considered a turning point in the escalation of violence.

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