Security & Strategic Review - July 2013 (ISSN 1741-4202)

The government of President Otto Pérez Molina recently announced the arrest of five members of a ‘community police’ group in Tejutla, San Marcos, on suspicion of involvement in serious crimes. This has been highlighted as proof that the authorities have not lost control of these organisations, which have grown from 168 in 1999 to 717 in 2011 — without counting the unregistered ones. A study conducted by an institute of the Universidad Rafael Landívar and some NGOs have been claiming the exact opposite.