A WIFE, A HORSE AND A GUN
Drug Barons and Murderers on Guatemalan Ballot
By Jens Glüsing
Drug smuggling and violent crime are becoming increasingly common facets of everyday life in Guatemala. Voters are hoping that Sunday's election might help. Unfortunately, many of the criminals are on the ballot.
The campaign workers simply call their candidate Manolo. They wear cowboy hats and white lab coats, walking through the poor neighborhoods of Jutiapa, a small city near the border with El Salvador, handing out medication and treating the sick. They do good deeds, and Manuel Castillo, a member of the Guatemalan congress, will do the same, they say. They want the city's residents to elect Castillo to be their next mayor.
The candidate himself is very cautious, and for good reason. "He sleeps in a different place every night," says one campaign worker. Visitors are asked to leave their telephone numbers and are told: "Manolo will call you."
The obese Manolo is believed to be the head of the Jutiapa cartel, a gang of cocaine and car smugglers. The US Drug Enforcement Agency has had its eye on him for years, and his visa to enter the United States has been revoked. Two years ago the UNE, one of Guatemala's biggest parties, ejected him because of his alleged connections to the drug mafia. But this doesn't bother Manolo, who is now running as an independent candidate.
'Money or Lead'
Capital offenses have rarely hampered political careers in Guatemala. Among the candidates in next Sunday's presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections are politicians who have ties to murders, drug dealing, auto theft and weapons smuggling. Efraín Ríos Montt, 81, a former dictator and sect leader who has been charged with genocide for massacring tens of thousands of Mayan Indians in the 1980s, also stands a good chance of gaining a seat in the Guatemalan congress.
Mayors, town council members and members of congress are more or less immune to criminal prosecution. On the few occasions when a politician is tried in court, the judge is usually left with a choice between "plato o plomo" -- money or lead. "Guatemala is an ideal country for murderers," says United Nations Special Envoy Philip Alston.
More than 40 political activists have already been murdered during the campaign. Last year close to 6,000 Guatemalans died a violent death. Almost 11 years after the end of a civil war that cost more than 200,000 lives, the small Central American country is sinking into an orgy of violence once again. The peace agreement, which envisioned a reduction in the size of the military and the demobilization of the guerilla movement, has never been fully implemented. Even for Central America, a region known for its high murder rate, Guatemala is a nightmare.
Many former officers have established security companies. There are 120,000 private police officers in the country, and men wielding automatic weapons are a common sight. They form death squads and hunt down homeless children and criminal youth. Others work for the drug mafia.
Porous Border
Guatemala is the most important bridgehead for drugs bound for Mexico and the United States. Experts estimate that up to 90 percent of Colombian cocaine passes through the country, where the mafia controls the border regions. "Organized crime has infiltrated the government," says Juan Carlos Marroquín.
Marroquín, 36, is a former journalist and now the chief advisor to the center-left politician Álvaro Colom, who is leading the polls for the presidential election. Marroquín is protected by two bodyguards, and with good reason: Last year a group of men opened fire on his car and house with submachine guns at night. Marroquín had urged Colom to exclude gangsters from his party. "They wanted to take revenge with the attack," he says.
Marroquín was in fact slated to be named interior minister under Colom. But Colom's prospects are dwindling, now that fear of violence has given the conservatives a boost. According to opinion polls, Gen. Otto Pérez Molina, with his campaign of the "hard hand," is gradually gaining on Colom. Molina has said that his first official act will be to declare a state of emergency and beef up the police force. His campaign workers promote their candidate with slogans like: "Every man needs a wife, a horse and a gun."
A Woman with Ideas
"Pérez Molina is inciting violence so that he can then portray himself as the savior of the nation," says Rigoberta Menchú, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and also a candidate for the presidency. Wearing a Mayan robe, she stands on a truck bed in the pouring rain on the market square in Jutiapa. Only a handful of loyal followers have turned out to hear her speak. A car drives by blaring campaign slogans for drug lord candidate Manolo, but the short, rotund woman remains undeterred.
As an Indian, she doesn't stand a chance of winning this election, but she has plans for the future. Her role model is Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, who also won the election only after several tries. "The Mayas have awakened," she says. "We are no longer the oligarchy's mindless voting masses."
In contrast, candidate Castillo is rarely seen in public. His few campaign appearances are unannounced. He is cautious after having been implicated in the murder of three members of congress from Salvador and their drivers, who were shot and set on fire five months ago near Guatemala City. On the day of the crime, the man behind the murders allegedly called Castillo on his mobile phone several times. Then the murderers were killed, presumably by contract killers.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,504098,00.html
Drug Barons and Murderers on Guatemalan Ballot
By Jens Glüsing
Drug smuggling and violent crime are becoming increasingly common facets of everyday life in Guatemala. Voters are hoping that Sunday's election might help. Unfortunately, many of the criminals are on the ballot.
The campaign workers simply call their candidate Manolo. They wear cowboy hats and white lab coats, walking through the poor neighborhoods of Jutiapa, a small city near the border with El Salvador, handing out medication and treating the sick. They do good deeds, and Manuel Castillo, a member of the Guatemalan congress, will do the same, they say. They want the city's residents to elect Castillo to be their next mayor.
The candidate himself is very cautious, and for good reason. "He sleeps in a different place every night," says one campaign worker. Visitors are asked to leave their telephone numbers and are told: "Manolo will call you."
The obese Manolo is believed to be the head of the Jutiapa cartel, a gang of cocaine and car smugglers. The US Drug Enforcement Agency has had its eye on him for years, and his visa to enter the United States has been revoked. Two years ago the UNE, one of Guatemala's biggest parties, ejected him because of his alleged connections to the drug mafia. But this doesn't bother Manolo, who is now running as an independent candidate.
'Money or Lead'
Capital offenses have rarely hampered political careers in Guatemala. Among the candidates in next Sunday's presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections are politicians who have ties to murders, drug dealing, auto theft and weapons smuggling. Efraín Ríos Montt, 81, a former dictator and sect leader who has been charged with genocide for massacring tens of thousands of Mayan Indians in the 1980s, also stands a good chance of gaining a seat in the Guatemalan congress.
Mayors, town council members and members of congress are more or less immune to criminal prosecution. On the few occasions when a politician is tried in court, the judge is usually left with a choice between "plato o plomo" -- money or lead. "Guatemala is an ideal country for murderers," says United Nations Special Envoy Philip Alston.
More than 40 political activists have already been murdered during the campaign. Last year close to 6,000 Guatemalans died a violent death. Almost 11 years after the end of a civil war that cost more than 200,000 lives, the small Central American country is sinking into an orgy of violence once again. The peace agreement, which envisioned a reduction in the size of the military and the demobilization of the guerilla movement, has never been fully implemented. Even for Central America, a region known for its high murder rate, Guatemala is a nightmare.
Many former officers have established security companies. There are 120,000 private police officers in the country, and men wielding automatic weapons are a common sight. They form death squads and hunt down homeless children and criminal youth. Others work for the drug mafia.
Porous Border
Guatemala is the most important bridgehead for drugs bound for Mexico and the United States. Experts estimate that up to 90 percent of Colombian cocaine passes through the country, where the mafia controls the border regions. "Organized crime has infiltrated the government," says Juan Carlos Marroquín.
Marroquín, 36, is a former journalist and now the chief advisor to the center-left politician Álvaro Colom, who is leading the polls for the presidential election. Marroquín is protected by two bodyguards, and with good reason: Last year a group of men opened fire on his car and house with submachine guns at night. Marroquín had urged Colom to exclude gangsters from his party. "They wanted to take revenge with the attack," he says.
Marroquín was in fact slated to be named interior minister under Colom. But Colom's prospects are dwindling, now that fear of violence has given the conservatives a boost. According to opinion polls, Gen. Otto Pérez Molina, with his campaign of the "hard hand," is gradually gaining on Colom. Molina has said that his first official act will be to declare a state of emergency and beef up the police force. His campaign workers promote their candidate with slogans like: "Every man needs a wife, a horse and a gun."
A Woman with Ideas
"Pérez Molina is inciting violence so that he can then portray himself as the savior of the nation," says Rigoberta Menchú, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and also a candidate for the presidency. Wearing a Mayan robe, she stands on a truck bed in the pouring rain on the market square in Jutiapa. Only a handful of loyal followers have turned out to hear her speak. A car drives by blaring campaign slogans for drug lord candidate Manolo, but the short, rotund woman remains undeterred.
As an Indian, she doesn't stand a chance of winning this election, but she has plans for the future. Her role model is Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, who also won the election only after several tries. "The Mayas have awakened," she says. "We are no longer the oligarchy's mindless voting masses."
In contrast, candidate Castillo is rarely seen in public. His few campaign appearances are unannounced. He is cautious after having been implicated in the murder of three members of congress from Salvador and their drivers, who were shot and set on fire five months ago near Guatemala City. On the day of the crime, the man behind the murders allegedly called Castillo on his mobile phone several times. Then the murderers were killed, presumably by contract killers.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,504098,00.html