Guatemala army no match for Mexican drug gangs
By Tom Johnson
COBAN, Guatemala (Reuters) - Guatemalan soldiers tasked with sweeping out Mexican drug cartels are finding they are outgunned and ill-equipped, raising fears of a power vacuum in parts of the country even after a 30-day military siege.
Hundreds of troops poured into the remote state of Alta Verapaz last month to attack traffickers, a surprise move by President Alvaro Colom to remobilize the army known for massacring civilians during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.
The 'state of siege' declared by the president ends on Wednesday but soldiers have already begun to return to their barracks and few army patrols are still operating in small towns terrorized by Mexico's feared Zetas drug gang.
As Mexico's escalating drug war spills over into Central America, Guatemala is struggling to block hugely powerful cartels from destabilizing areas of the country, a poor but democratic U.S. trading partner and a major coffee and sugar exporter.
"Organized crime is not just infiltrating us, it pains me to say it but drug traffickers have us cornered," Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom told Congress last week. "Just the weapons seized in Alta Verapaz are more than those of some army brigades."
Before Colom ordered the military operation, the Zetas were operating with impunity in Guatemala, undermining Mexico's battle against drug cartels. Officials worry Central America's weak governments are unable to contain the spreading threat of cartels in the region.
The United States is pumping $1.4 billion into the region to help governments attack drug gangs, but most of the funds are earmarked for Mexico. There, turf wars between gangs and attacks on cartels by the government have killed more than 34,000 people in the four years since President Felipe Calderon launched his own military-backed war on cartels. Less than a fifth of U.S. funds go to Central America and the Caribbean.
Patrolling in Alta Verapaz with armored cars, Guatemalan soldiers have found tortured bodies, luxury cars, assault weapons and an air strip used by drug gangs in the mountainous, coffee-growing state north of the Guatemalan capital.
They arrested at least 22 men accused of working for the Zetas, who officials say are operating in three-quarters of Guatemala's territory, a smuggling corridor for South American cocaine. Criminals have long collaborated with Mexican gangs but during the past few years the cartels have begun to move in more permanently, extorting businesses and corrupting locals.
LATENT THREAT
The army says it made important progress in Alta Verapaz, after dozens of drug-related killings late last year. "But there's still a latent threat," Colonel Marco Tulio Vasquez, head of anti-drug operations in the state, told Reuters in the town of Coban.
While the siege could be extended or troops sent elsewhere, Guatemala's army remains weak and underfunded, limiting its ability to echo Mexico's war on traffickers.
Peace accords in 1996 that ended 36 years of fighting between leftist rebels and government forces ordered the army be slashed in size, dwindling from a 50,000-strong force to just 17,000 soldiers today. Dozens of military bases, including one in Alta Verapaz, were closed.
Soldiers earn as little as $150 a month and are hired on a temporary basis. Troops often switch sides, swayed by high salaries offered by the drug cartels. The Zetas, originally formed by Mexican army deserters, have been known to recruit elite Guatemalan troops known as Kaibils who are trained in jungle warfare and infamous for brutal civil war-era abuses.
The army is more trusted than Guatemala's notoriously corrupt police, but many people are highly suspicious of men in uniform as the military struggles to shake its dark past.
Nearly a quarter of a million people, mostly native Mayans, died during the civil war, and a U.N.-backed Truth Commission report found the army committed 85 percent of the killings.
"The army still provokes bad memories," said Carmen Rosa de Leon, a human rights leader in Guatemala City.
(Writing by Robin Emmott; editing by Mica Rosenberg)
© Copyright 2011, Reuters
WXEL: Guatemala army no match for Mexican drug gangs (2011-01-18)
Cafe Condesa and Tres Leches Desert
The one desert I have to have each time when I dine at Cafe Condesa is their famous Tres Leches. My mouth waters just sitting here in the States thinking about the wonderful deserts that Cafe Condesa offers. But at the top of my list is Pastel Tres Leches. This is of course my favorite desert in the world. There are several variations to this wonderful desert, but I have never found one that I do not like. But the most favorite of mine is the one that is offered at Cafe Condesa.
Pastel Tres Leches
Cafe Condesa exterior
Fountain inside of Cafe Condesa
Inside of one of the halls at Cafe Condesa
For some great information and recipes on Tres Leches Cake check out my Squidoo Page for Tres Leches
For some great information and recipes on Tres Leches Cake check out my Squidoo Page for Tres Leches
For a wonderful recipe for my favorite desert "Tres Leches Cake"
follow this link to
Some Faces of Guatemala
Here is some faces from Guatemala. I love taking pictures of children sine they love to see their picture in the camera after you have taken their picture. It is such a thrill to catch one of these children off guard and see their face lite up after you have caught that candid shot.
This picture was taken while working in Chuchuca
This picture was taken while working in Chuchuca
This little girl and boy were from the village and I just love
the colors of the clothes that females wear. This hupil was hand made
from the mother of this child.
This picture was taken in the park in the center of Antigua
Guatemala. Shoe shine children are very popular all over Guatemala.
It was hard to get this photo since a lot of these kids do not like getting
their picture taken.
This photo was taken while attending church outside of Patzun. It took
several attempts to get this picture since she was playing and hiding behind
her mother. Again look at the beautiful colors of hupil.
Guatemalan Vice President Goes to Cuba
Guatemalan Vice President Arrived in Cuba
Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada arrived in Havana Sunday afternoon at the official request of the Cuban government. He was welcomed by Cuban Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Rogelio Sierraat the Jose Marti international airport.
The Guatemalan vice president extolled the friendship bonds between Cuba and his country and in particular the Cuban solidarity with Guatemala expressed through collaboration programs. He highlihgted the possibility granted to a large number of people from his country to study medicine at the Havana-based Latin American Medical School.
Espada added that he is interested in learning about Cuban programs for the disabled. He said he hopes his country will benefit from the Cuban experience on the field through projects similar to those implemented by Cuban specialists in Ecuador.
During his stay in Cuba, Espada will meet with government officials from the health and
sports sectors, as his government is interested in expanding sports collaboration. He will also visit places of economic, historical and cultural interests.
Source
Espada added that he is interested in learning about Cuban programs for the disabled. He said he hopes his country will benefit from the Cuban experience on the field through projects similar to those implemented by Cuban specialists in Ecuador.
During his stay in Cuba, Espada will meet with government officials from the health and
sports sectors, as his government is interested in expanding sports collaboration. He will also visit places of economic, historical and cultural interests.
Source
Overlooking Antigua Guatemala
Overlooking Antigua Guatemala
Not to much news to report on from the weekend. I thought I would share a couple pictures overlooking Antigua Guatemala. Antigua being a very city that has so much to offer especially a shutter bug like myself. Over the next several weeks I will be putting on the blog here some of my favorite pictures from Guatemala.
Related blog post Santa Clara Arch
Related blog Post Plaza Del Apolstol
Not to much news to report on from the weekend. I thought I would share a couple pictures overlooking Antigua Guatemala. Antigua being a very city that has so much to offer especially a shutter bug like myself. Over the next several weeks I will be putting on the blog here some of my favorite pictures from Guatemala.
Both these pictures were taken at the same time.
I was sitting on the Cerro de la Cruz Hill of the cross which is right outside of Antigua.
I will be sharing more from this location in days and weeks to come.
Related blog post Santa Clara Arch
Related blog Post Plaza Del Apolstol
Gang's terror felt far from drug war on US border
IXTEPEC, Mexico (AP) — A priest who shelters stranded migrants needs police protection. A chopped-up body turns up with a threatening message. Beheadings are on the rise. The local press is too frightened to write about any of it.
This is not northern Mexico, where drug gangs fight for turf along the U.S. border and the Mexican government wages an open battle against them. This is the south, where the brutal Zetas cartel is quietly spreading a reign of terror virtually unchallenged, all the way to the border with Guatemala — and across it.
Just as they have done in the north, groups claiming to be Zetas have set up criminal networks to control transit routes for drugs, migrants and contraband such as pirated DVDS, intimidating the populace and committing gruesome murders as an example to the uncooperative.
Four years ago they started preying on the south, Mexico's poorest region. They moved into Oaxaca, Chiapas and other southern states and then northern Guatemala, where attacks on townspeople became so commonplace that the government last month sent in 300 troops to regain control of the border province of Alta Verapaz.
In towns on the Oaxacan isthmus and the center of Oaxaca city, the capital, the wealthy as well as street vendors and migrants have been kidnapped and subjected to extortion.
Then last month, the gang blamed for massacring 72 migrants in the summer in the northern state of Tamaulipas became suspects in the disappearance of more than 40 Central American migrants in Oaxaca. The abduction drew international attention when the El Salvadoran foreign ministry reported the crime, but the Mexican government initially denied it happened......
READ MORE
This is not northern Mexico, where drug gangs fight for turf along the U.S. border and the Mexican government wages an open battle against them. This is the south, where the brutal Zetas cartel is quietly spreading a reign of terror virtually unchallenged, all the way to the border with Guatemala — and across it.
Just as they have done in the north, groups claiming to be Zetas have set up criminal networks to control transit routes for drugs, migrants and contraband such as pirated DVDS, intimidating the populace and committing gruesome murders as an example to the uncooperative.
Four years ago they started preying on the south, Mexico's poorest region. They moved into Oaxaca, Chiapas and other southern states and then northern Guatemala, where attacks on townspeople became so commonplace that the government last month sent in 300 troops to regain control of the border province of Alta Verapaz.
In towns on the Oaxacan isthmus and the center of Oaxaca city, the capital, the wealthy as well as street vendors and migrants have been kidnapped and subjected to extortion.
Then last month, the gang blamed for massacring 72 migrants in the summer in the northern state of Tamaulipas became suspects in the disappearance of more than 40 Central American migrants in Oaxaca. The abduction drew international attention when the El Salvadoran foreign ministry reported the crime, but the Mexican government initially denied it happened......
READ MORE
Volcano Triggers Yellow Alert in 3 Guatemalan Departments
GUATEMALA - Three Guatemalan departments are under yellow alert, as a preventive measure in the face of the sustained activity of Fuego Volcano.
Sacatepequez, Chimaltenango, and Escuintla keep a wary eye on the evolution in coming days of the colossal, volcano, 3,763 meters above sea level.
The volcano is being monitored by the National Coordinating Office for Disaster Reduction, and the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology.
The Institute has recently registered weak and moderate explosions, with thick grey ashes spewing forth from the volcano, some as high as 500 to 800 meters.
Such explosions are generating shock waves felt as far as seven kilometres (about 4.3 miles) from the crater, as well as constant moderate avalanches.
Source
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