SWJ El Centro Book Review – The Dilemma of Lawlessness: Organized Crime, Violence, Prosperity, and Security along Guatemala’s Borders
Ralph Espach, Daniel Haering, Javier M. Quinoñez, and Miguel C. Giron, The Dilemma of Lawlessness: Organized Crime, Violence, Prosperity, and Security along Guatemala’s Borders. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps University Press, [ISBN 978-0-9973174-4-2 Paperback/eBook, 86 pages]
The Dilemma of Lawlessness is a book about Guatemala’s borders and their relationship with organized crime. It focuses on three border communities within Guatemala to explain how local dynamics form the bedrock of the current situation and yet may also provide the key to solving it. The authors are Ralph Espach, a senior researcher at the Center for Naval Analysis, Daniel Hearing, a Director of the IK International Research Center at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City, Javier Melendez Quiñonez, a research fellow at the American University in Washington DC, and analyst Miguel Castillo Giron.
The book opens with an introduction explaining the situation in Guatemala as of 2012, giving a brief overview of Guatemala’s historical and ongoing role as a transit zone, first for the Spanish Empire and now for the Mexican cartels. But while Guatemala always existed as a transit zone, the authors now describe it as being comprised of “superhighways for the transfer of high-value narcotics, chemicals, weapons, and cash required by the illicit drug industry.”(p. IX) The book notes that other independent and governmental reports have already explained the ramifications and state of the high level of violence and organized crime in Guatemala, but few have gone into depth as to the “Local dynamics underpinning this national crisis, such as the relationships between criminal networks and local authorities and institutions…”(p. X) The introduction promises to use three case studies of local border municipalities in Guatemala to reveal how the differences of each town will also reflect in the differences of these towns’ relationships with organized crime, noting that often these criminal groups can sometimes provide public goods and services that the state has failed to provide.
Sayaxché
The first municipality the book introduces is Sayaxché, located in the northern forestlands of Guatemala. The book describes that because Sayaxhcé is so isolated it is bereft of the strong local community organizations that typically partner with more traditional cartels, and secure public goods for the locals. This has left it vulnerable to groups like the Zetas who operate with more violence and fear than the other cartels. “In Sayaxché, the relationship between the community and the activities of criminal groups is less close than in the other cases…Unlike in other cases, the criminal groups do not need protection or support for their illegal activities from local citizens.”(p. 29) This chapter makes it clear that the infiltration of criminal groups into the local government has not only helped curb NGO’s but also diminishes the relationship between the population and the local government. However, this chapter on Sayaxché is nuanced, and also writes how the local criminal groups have benefited the local population, “Officials and residents in Sayaxché point to the proliferation of private schools and university extensions as manifestations of an emerging middle class that benefits at least in part from local revenues generated by drug trafficking…”(p. 31)
Gualán
Next the book covers Gualán, a municipality on the eastern side of Guatemala, in the larger department of Zacapa, close to the border with Honduras and the Caribbean. “Gualán and Zacapa are among Guatemala’s most violent cities and departments.”(p. 35) While this region had always been home to farmers, a surge in producing tomatoes instead of corn and coffee led to massive new construction projects and land sales that landed a large amount of land into “…the hands of people linked to drug trafficking, who had the most resources at the time.”(p. 36) This chapter clarifies that smuggling has formed an important economic lifeblood for this municipality: “The longstanding weakness of controls on both sides of the border have helped Gualán survive periodic crises caused by crop failures, droughts, political instability, and war.(p. 38) Traditionally, important local powerhouses like the “los senores” kept the peace between traffickers, government, and the locals, but in recent years with the weakening of the “los senores” the chapter describes a rise in violence and murder. A final detail in the chapter helps to paint a picture, “Since the government captured Waldemar Lorenzana, the patriarch of the Lorenzana clan, in 2011, Gualán has experienced an economic slowdown.”(p. 43)
Malacatán
Malacatán, a municipality within the San Marcos department, is located near the border with Mexico. The chapter describes it as being successful even outside of smuggling activities, with most of its wealth coming from coffee production and containing, “…a diverse economy, a dynamic financial system, and significant commercial activity.”(p. 45) It is also described as having a high level of community capital. While the chapter makes it clear that this municipality is very healthy even without smuggling, it also makes it clear that smuggling contraband is an important lifeblood for many of the town’s poor communities. It also makes clear there is a distinction between smuggling contraband like gasoline and chickens, which is a normalized activity occurring out in the open on highways, and drug trafficking, which far less people take part in.
Conclusion
After reading The Dilemma of Lawlessness, some key law enforcement issues stand out to the reader. Chiefly is the fact that many of these communities’ economies are completely interwoven with contraband smuggling due to poor national border controls and trade policies that incentivize citizens to smuggle goods. Due to these dynamic economies, many of these border communities may have symbiotic and entrenched relationships with trafficking groups, who often provide public goods that the national government is not providing. The national government is also described as having weak ties to many of the border municipalities and very little if any, force presence. Until public policy addresses the unmet needs of these border towns and trade policies that incentivize smuggling, local law enforcement will have a hard time enacting any long-lasting border enforcement.
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