Guatemala President Otto Perez: Mexico's Zetas Drug Cartel Seeks Control

MEXICO CITY -- Guatemala's newly inaugurated president says Mexico's Zetas drug cartel sought to take over the drug trade in Guatemala by co-opting or killing local traffickers.

President Otto Perez says the Zetas offered deals for gangs willing to form part of their network, and killed those who refused.

The Zetas have been blamed for Guatemala's biggest drug-related massacre, the slaughter of 27 cattle ranch workers in May.

Perez says he is seeking to verify reports from ex-President Alvaro Colom that rival drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been in Guatemala.

Perez told the Mexican television network Televisa Monday that the Zetas started moving into Guatemala about four years ago.

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Comments

[banker67]

10:16 PM on 02/24/2012

I do not believe for one minute that the U.S.-backed military government there is not up to its eyeballs in the local drug trafficking. Not even for 60 seconds.

[sallybutt45]

04:34 AM on 02/25/2012

You realize of course that the Zetas are former American-trained special force, that returned to Mexico, uniformed and armed and instead of fighting the cartels, they BECAME a cartel. If I had a say, I would tell the U.S. Stop "helping" all over the planet, we just have a way of making a mess everywhere we go, and when we finally leave, we forget to clean up after ourselves. Rather like some relatives we all seem to have. Living right next door to Mexico, I can tell you, that it is pure anarchy, there is no government to speak of. The military and the police are all involved, and as the poison spreads, the cartels are moving into the other countries, and human beings have become the latest commodity in Mexico, with kidnappings are an everyday occurance. Not only are the officials in Mex and elsewhere involved, so are the U.S. officials, as was reported in the El Paso Times awhile back. Officials were partying with the cartels and were supplying them with information of ongoing infvestigation targets.

We know how to start wars, but somehow have difficulty with finishing them without creating total chaos. We want really badly to control commerce in Latin America, and we have just found a round-about-way of doing it. Maybe that's why Hugo Chavez is not so popular with the U.S. he wants very limited involvement with us, and he says it clearly. Gringos, go home!!

[solitaanonima]

08:41 AM on 01/30/2012

Hidroenergia SA, empresa dirigida por Aurelio Austurias y Ernesto Degenhart, dedicada al lavado de activos para el Cartel Los Zetas.

[Dunnage]

04:09 PM on 01/20/2012

Started about four years ago. well, glad to be kept up to date.

[Sheldon archer]

08:57 PM on 01/16/2012

Another reason to just legalize the stuff but the US will never learn anything from Prohibition.

[Crisdean Wulver]

06:57 PM on 01/16/2012

Drug cartels in central America are getting so strong that they may one day be able to topple governments and set up criminal dictatorships. And it's all the result of America's insane drug policies.

[altohone]

03:08 PM on 01/16/2012

This sounds more like a convenient excuse not to investigate the rancher involved in the land dispute with those killed.

[Intellectual Integrity]

02:08 PM on 01/16/2012

I just returned from living there in the Western part of Guatemala. I almost got killed by the Zetas a couple times. They are a violent group that easily outmatches the incompetent and under-equiped Guatemalan police and army. The reason they have power is because of America's drug consumption and drug policy. Thousands of Guatemalans have and will continue dying every year until something changes.

[Steven Schwartz2012]

04:00 PM on 01/16/2012

sad but only Paul would support a real change

[Joe Goforth]

05:40 PM on 01/16/2012

Ron Paul to end the Drug wars. Ron Paul is not nearly as sad as the carnage we are forced to put up with now.

[eric14]

06:48 PM on 01/16/2012

Posters keep saying he would leave it to the states and nothing would change. How could he alone change things?