Main INC Guatemala Page

The 1999 Congressional Presentation for the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau (INL) defines three objectives for narcotics control efforts in Guatemala:

1. Continued development of an effective narcotics law enforcement agency as well as improvements in the judiciary which are key to a successful law enforcement capability;
2. Maintain efforts to deter the transshipment of cocaine through Guatemala and access to essential drug producing chemicals by traffickers; and
3. Continue eradication programs which discourage opium poppy production.¹

U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Guatemala focuses on counterdrug law enforcement, illicit crop eradication and domestic demand reduction. Current interdiction efforts will be expanded to include training and equipment support and maintenance.² According to the INL Congressional Presentation, "Guatemala also will promote coordinated integration of anti-narcotics activities in Belize, El Salvador and Honduras."³

The INC program in Guatemala maintains a Narcotics Law Enforcement project, which organizes, trains and equips the Department of Anti-Drug Operations (DOAN) of Guatemala's National Civilian Police (PNC) to carry out interdiction and eradication activities. INC funds are provided to support the staff of the DOAN and to increase professional training, which includes leadership skills and anti-narcotics intelligence analysis. The Narcotics Law Enforcement project also seeks to help the Guatemalan government "improve the headquarters section, expand the activities of narcotics prosecutors and the new narcotics investigation squad, and continue operations of the Joint Information Coordination Center (JICC) and chemical control office".⁴ The JICC, established with INL support, gathers and shares information on narcotics movements.

1997 saw the beginning of a post-war transition from Guatemala's old national and treasury police forces to a new National Civilian Police (PNC). As part of the reorganization effort, the DOAN was transferred, in its totality, from the old National Police (PN) to the PNC. DOAN officers received retraining along with a major pay increase.

In the last few years there has been a decline in U.S. detection and monitoring efforts in Guatemala, due to a shift in drug interdiction emphasis away from the "transit zone" and toward Andean "source countries." An "extremely successful" aerial cocaine interdiction, reconnaissance and eradication program had been supported by the INC program in Guatemala during the early 1990s. In 1997, helicopters stationed in Guatemala under the INC program's Interregional Aviation Support program were removed.

The U.S. and Guatemala are examining options to provide air and sea mobility to the PNC and the DOAN for counternarcotics operations, in order to compensate for the redeployment of U.S. helicopters.⁵ Guatemala has offered to use its own helicopters and ships in interdiction efforts in exchange for additional U.S. logistical support.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the U.S. Customs Service both provide support to Guatemala. Customs has assigned a full-time agent to a port security program, which was previously staffed by several temporary agents. The Narcotics Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy is sponsoring the establishment of a new office in the Caribbean port of Santo Tomás.⁶

Sources:

¹ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: Department of State: March 1998): 37.

² Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 37.

³ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 39.

⁴ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 38.

⁵ United States, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Washington, March 1998, March 2, 1998 <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1997_narc_report/index.html>.

⁶ Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, March 1998.