Security & Strategic Review February 2009 (ISSN 1741-4202)

The pervasive influence of drug-trafficking gangs on crime, and particularly violent crime in Guatemala, is not only being openly admitted by officialdom: it is generating such fear among senior officials that a top law enforcement officer would rather see members of Los Zetas, the infamous Mexican gang, arrested, extradited or deported than risk the perils of holding and trying them for two recent massacres committed in Guatemala.