Guatemala fears drug lords will buy candidates
GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Guatemala's government warned on Tuesday that powerful drug traffickers plan to back candidates in upcoming 2007 elections who if elected would turn a blind-eye to their criminal activities.
Voters in Guatemala, a major gateway for illegal drugs heading to the United States, next year will elect a new president as well as congressmen and local officials.
"We're in a pre-election phase and drug traffickers have the capacity to finance their own candidates," Vice President Eduardo Stein told Reuters on Tuesday. "They want a government to rise to power that would be tolerant of a narco-state."
The rise in drug trafficking with links to violent street gangs is contributing to a wave of violence sweeping Guatemala, with over 20,000 murders in the past five years, according to the human rights ombudsman office.
The violence creates a climate of instability that could affect the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections, Stein said.
"We have our own hypothesis that organized crime is provoking these types of killings to create instability and problems for the government," said Stein.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has estimated that some 75 percent of the cocaine bound for North American markets passes through Guatemala.
A U.S. general was startled by Guatemala's vast drug-trafficking infrastructure on a recent visit to the lawless Peten jungle region close to the border with Mexico.
"The drug trade is so lucrative that airplanes -- some of them large enough for 45 passengers -- are disposable," Gen. Bantz Craddock, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, said in a speech to military personnel in the United States earlier this month.
With profits from the drug trade, traffickers have the power to manipulate local politics, said Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann.
"The drug dealers know how to keep people quiet. They buy cooperation," Vielmann told the local media this week. "There are many towns in Guatemala where they pay for parties, build schools or health centers. But this is always in exchange for something."
Vielmann said, however, that no arrests have been made in connection with these corruption allegations.
Voters in Guatemala, a major gateway for illegal drugs heading to the United States, next year will elect a new president as well as congressmen and local officials.
"We're in a pre-election phase and drug traffickers have the capacity to finance their own candidates," Vice President Eduardo Stein told Reuters on Tuesday. "They want a government to rise to power that would be tolerant of a narco-state."
The rise in drug trafficking with links to violent street gangs is contributing to a wave of violence sweeping Guatemala, with over 20,000 murders in the past five years, according to the human rights ombudsman office.
The violence creates a climate of instability that could affect the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections, Stein said.
"We have our own hypothesis that organized crime is provoking these types of killings to create instability and problems for the government," said Stein.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has estimated that some 75 percent of the cocaine bound for North American markets passes through Guatemala.
A U.S. general was startled by Guatemala's vast drug-trafficking infrastructure on a recent visit to the lawless Peten jungle region close to the border with Mexico.
"The drug trade is so lucrative that airplanes -- some of them large enough for 45 passengers -- are disposable," Gen. Bantz Craddock, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, said in a speech to military personnel in the United States earlier this month.
With profits from the drug trade, traffickers have the power to manipulate local politics, said Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann.
"The drug dealers know how to keep people quiet. They buy cooperation," Vielmann told the local media this week. "There are many towns in Guatemala where they pay for parties, build schools or health centers. But this is always in exchange for something."
Vielmann said, however, that no arrests have been made in connection with these corruption allegations.
posted by Marko at 2/14/2006 09:05:00 PM
<< Home