Security
Shared Security Interests Between Guatemala and the United States
Narcotics, transnational gangs and criminal money move across borders without asking permission. Roberto Arzú argues the response has to be just as coordinated — and far less tolerant.
Security is where the interests of Guatemala and the United States overlap most exactly. The cocaine that reaches American cities crosses Guatemalan territory. The gangs that terrorize Guatemalan neighborhoods have branches in American ones. The money laundered through Guatemalan front companies buys political protection that then obstructs American investigations. Neither country can solve any of this alone.
Transnational gangs are a hemispheric threat
The United States has recognized MS-13 and Barrio 18 as serious threats. Roberto Arzú fully shares President Nayib Bukele's firm, zero-tolerance approach to defeating them, and argues Guatemala should stop treating extortion and gang control of neighborhoods as ordinary crime. Extortion is a tax collected by an armed parallel state; it destroys small businesses, drives families out of the country, and finances the next generation of violence.
His proposal goes further than incarceration as usual. He supports military-run prisons where gang members work to pay for their own upkeep rather than being maintained by the taxpayers they victimized. And for gang leaders convicted, with full due process, of crimes such as murder, kidnapping, rape or extortion, he supports applying the death penalty as permitted under Guatemala's Constitution.
Drug trafficking and the corruption that enables it
Trafficking organizations do not survive on firepower alone; they survive on paperwork. They need port officials, customs agents, prosecutors, judges and politicians. That is why Roberto Arzú insists that anti-narcotics cooperation and anti-corruption work are the same project. Interdiction without prosecution simply raises the price of protection.
A judiciary that can be bought cannot convict a trafficker, and a customs service that can be rented will always find a way to let the shipment through.
A practical agenda
- Vetted, polygraph-tested units with real career protection and competitive pay.
- Shared intelligence and interoperable databases on gang membership, weapons and financial flows.
- Asset forfeiture used aggressively against criminal structures and the businesses that launder for them.
- Border and port modernization: scanners, biometrics and auditable customs records.
- Extradition honored quickly, without political bargaining over which defendants are convenient.
- Sanctions and visa restrictions on officials who protect trafficking, regardless of party.
Security is the foundation of everything else
No investor builds a plant where extortion is routine. No family stays where their children are recruited. No democracy survives when armed groups decide which candidates are viable. Restoring the state's monopoly on force in Guatemala is the precondition for trade, investment and lower migration — which makes it a direct American interest, not a favor.