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Caribbean & Central America - June 2017 (ISSN 1741-4458)

GUATEMALA: Gov’t faces renewed prison crisis

Guatemala’s interior minister Francisco Rivas last month was forced to dismiss the head of the prison service (DGSP), Nicolás García Fuentes, who had been in the post less than a year. His sacking followed the escape on 10 May of high profile prisoner Maritza Lemus, alias ‘La Patrona’, who was being held in jail at the Mariscal Zavala military base, in the capital, Guatemala City. García’s deputy, Antonio Santos, was named as his interim successor although he quit after just two days in the job. While Santos has since been replaced, again on an interim basis, by Mirna Fajardo, the DGSP head of human resources, and ‘La Patrona’ has since been recaptured, the high-profile prison break – and instability at the helm of the DGSP – serves as the latest reminder of the ongoing prison crisis facing President Jimmy Morales and his conservative Frente de Convergencia Nacional (FCN-Nación) government.

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