Bad News for Guatemala’s Narco-Politicians
Dear all,
We welcome you to the Greater Caribbean Monitor (GCaM).
Today's GCaM is an exceptional edition.
You may remember that, a couple of months ago, we exposed on this very platform a plot to assassinate our Editor-in-Chief. That plot was a direct consequence of our relentless fight against narcopoliticians and their attempts to capture the Guatemalan state. It is a dangerous fight, but our convictions remain unshaken. And now, Guatemala is beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. That light is coming from the North.
Faced with the Guatemalan executive branch's failure to confront this threat, the United States has stepped forward to take matters into its own hands. The principal cartels behind these political networks have now been designated as both Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
For that reason, today's edition features a single piece: a special article by our Chief Content Officer. I will leave the floor to him in a moment, but I cannot send this newsletter without recalling something I said when we first received those threats:
Days like these remind us why we will never abandon this fight: “because we know we are on the right side of history, because good will always triumph, and because it is not in the nature of darkness to defeat the light.”
Bad News for Guatemala’s Narco-Politicians: Former US Ambassador McFarland Says Both US Parties Back the Crackdown
1115 words | 4 minutes reading time
On November 13, Washington branded three of Guatemala's oldest drug trafficking clans as terrorists: Los Lorenzana, Los Mendoza and Los Huistas. The State Department designated Los Lorenzana a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The Treasury Department sanctioned Los Mendoza and Los Huistas as SDGTs for providing material support to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG). Hours later, República spoke on the record with Stephen McFarland, US ambassador to Guatemala from 2008 to 2011.
Designations like these are rarely the end of the story. They are usually the first step toward dismantling the full web that keeps a criminal organization alive: the money launderers, the judges, the police officers, and the politicians.
In Guatemala, that web runs straight to the ballot box. Less than a year before general elections, Los Lorenzana, Los Mendoza and Los Huistas hold sway over political parties and candidates, and some of those ties are already documented in US court files and sanctions lists.
| •Why his voice matters |
McFarland is no spokesman for the current administration. He is a career Foreign Service officer, nominated by George W. Bush, who served most of his tenure under Barack Obama. He stressed that he is retired and does not speak for the US government.
He has been a public critic of Trump-era policy in Central America. In 2019 he called the president's threats against Guatemala over an asylum deal wrong and counterproductive, and he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that cutting aid to the region was “very counterproductive.” On Friday's action he did not hedge. “The United States' declaration on these drug trafficking groups is very significant,” he said.
The bipartisan core
A new Congress takes office in Washington in January after the November 3 midterms. República asked McFarland whether partisan friction in the United States could slow the campaign against narco-politics. He does not think so…
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