Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has needed to deploy hundreds of army troops to combat drug cartels fleeing Mexico and invading Guatemala, specifically Los Zetas. Colom has gone so far as to declare a state of siege in Alta Verapaz, allowing police to make arrests and search homes without a warrant.
“If we put our military against the military of the drug traffickers, we’ll simply have thousands of deaths,” said Sandino Asturias, a security expert at the Guatemala Studies Center, a think tank in the capital of Guatemala City.
Asturias said he favors the use of wiretaps and other intelligence over brute force.
Guatemalan officials are trying to prevent the violence that has plagued Mexico the last five years.
