Guatemala and organised crime: Reaching the untouchables | The Economist

Attempts to stop drugs money corrupting public life in Guatemala are making some progress.

Free from prosecution, many veterans of the intelligence and security services who had run right-wing death squads regrouped into crime gangs with a lucrative kidnapping business, some of them continuing to serve in the police. Their profits were used to buy off witnesses, judges, and politicians. These networks, present in almost every government agency, joined forces with international drugs traffickers, giving them new funding and firepower.