On the night of May 14-15, 25 to 30 Guatemalan laborers were murdered on the farm of a regional landowner near the village of San Benito, Peten department, Guatemala's northernmost province. The mass killing appears to be the work of Mexico's Los Zetas cartel, which is known to have a presence in the region and to control the two Mexican states that border Guatemala to the north and west, Campeche and Chiapas. Peten department is remote and consists largely of jungle and swamp. The people who live there are strongly independent and distrustful of the Guatemalan government due to the long and brutal civil war waged in Guatemala from 1960 to 1996, in which many of the department’s inhabitants fought on the rebel side. It is known that Los Zetas over the years have recruited many Guatemalan kaibiles, current or former Guatemalan special operations soldiers, and there is a high likelihood that many Zeta gunmen operating in Guatemala, the Yucatan and southern Mexico are from Guatemala. Much remains unclear about the possible motive for the mass killing, in which many of the victims were beheaded or dismembered — a Los Zetas trademark. Some evidence suggests that the Zetas may have wanted to target the owner of the land, though it also may simply have been to send a message that the cartel was present, in control and willing to do anything to maintain its grip on the region.
