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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Budget
Woes Weaken Guatemala Army In
Drugs War
By Sarah Grainger
EL PERU, Guatemala (Reuters) - The
economic crisis has squeezed Guatemala's
coffers and left the army strapped for cash
and scrambling to pay for gear and supplies
as it tries to battle rich and well-armed
drug cartels.
In the vast Peten jungle in northern
Guatemala, drug gangs operate with impunity,
laying clandestine landing strips for planes
loaded with South American cocaine which is
then trucked over the porous border with
Mexico and up to the United States.
Soldiers patrol a scattering of basic
security posts in the rainforest like one
near the Mayan archeological site of El
Peru, an hour's drive from the Mexican
border, where a small band of 15 unkempt
soldiers mans a cluster of wooden huts.
Drug smugglers, by contrast, have the cash
to buy private planes and powerful weapons,
build roads through the jungle and recruit
ex-soldiers to their side with generous
wages.
The gangs have come in from Mexico, where a
multi billion dollar army crackdown has
interfered with smuggling routes.
In the Laguna del Tigre national park which
makes up roughly a quarter of Peten,
traffickers have some 50 small planes in
operation, according to park director Rudy
Quezada. "There are illegal airstrips
everywhere you look," he said.
Last year President Alvaro Colom vowed to
expand Guatemala's armed forces by 60
percent to 25,000 troops and send thousands
to the border region with Mexico to crack
down on smuggling.
But the increase has not materialized as an
economic slowdown has eaten into government
coffers. A slump in key industries like
textiles has knocked down tax revenues by
hundreds of millions of dollars. Spending
cuts have left the army short on recruits,
equipment and even food.
"The army doesn't have the hardware to fight
drug trafficking nor the expertise to gather
intelligence on the cartels," said
ex-colonel and security analyst Mario
Merida.
DRUGS THREAT OVERSHADOWS WAR PAST
Some $18 million had been earmarked to
renovate two army bases in San Marcos and
Quiche departments, near Mexico. The bases
have been dormant for a decade following
army cutbacks mandated in peace accords
after a brutal 1960-96 civil war that killed
more than a quarter of a million people.
The money would have paid for 1,000 recruits
for each base, uniforms, transport, fuel and
food, but the sum was cut to $6 million as
the government pruned back its budget.
"We lack equipment and personnel," army
spokesman Byron Gutierrez said. "The
economic crisis means the finance ministry
hasn't had the necessary funds to pass on to
us."
Guatemala has been allocated $16 million
under a U.S. drug war aid package, but none
of it has gone to the army. The first funds
are going on police helicopters and radar
systems.
Colom wants to buy six army planes from
Brazilian maker Embraer (EMBR3.SA)(ERJ.N),
but the $99 million purchase requires a loan
that has yet to be approved by Congress.
After the civil war, Guatemala slashed its
army to 15,500 troops, a third of the size
it was at the end of the 36-year conflict.
The military is still struggling to overcome
its dark past after a U.N. report found the
army responsible for 85 percent of wartime
atrocities.
Some human rights groups oppose increasing
the army.
But Colom, a leftist whose politician uncle
was murdered by the army during the
conflict, says the drug threat is a bigger
concern, as Mexican cartels lay down roots
in Guatemala.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
reckons three-quarters of South American
cocaine smuggled north goes via Central
America. Much passes through Guatemala's
Peten region and the cartels buy off army
officers, police, judges and politicians to
protect their interests.
"There's anarchy in all the protected areas
of Peten," Peten Governor Rudel Alvarez told
Reuters. |
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