Mexican Cartels and Guatemalan Politics

U.S. and Guatemalan officials met Feb. 6 to discuss counternarcotics aid as an army siege in Guatemala's northern department of Alta Verapaz continues. U.S. and Mexican officials are watching the spread of Mexican drug cartel influence into the Central American state with concern. Guatemala, already an institutionally weak and corrupt state, runs the risk of becoming even more vulnerable to narco-politics in this presidential election year.