[1] According to New Yorker magazine, in 2009, "fewer civilians were reported killed in the war zone of Iraq than were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death in Guatemala," and 97% of homicides "remain unsolved.
[10] After the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, a majority of the 8,000 San Carlos students possessed leftist views in line with the outgoing government.
[2] The Guatemalan "security apparatus — death squads, intelligence units, police officers, military counter-insurgency forces — did not disappear but, rather, mutated into criminal organizations," and now are engaged "in arms trafficking, money laundering, extortion, human smuggling, black-market adoptions, and kidnapping for ransom," and drug trade.
[2] Some high-profile murders revealed or suspected to be the work of the cartel include that of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, beaten to death in 1998, two days after the conclusion of an inquiry he had led into the violence of the civil war.
[5] In 1997 a large group of active military figures, including the deputy Minister of Defense, were found to be involved with the Colombian Cali cartel's smuggling efforts.
Its long, un-patrolled coastline and sparse jungles make it a popular landing point for boats and planes carrying drugs from South America, while its borders are understaffed and ill-equipped to fully exert customs controls.
[21] There are reports that people, especially tourists, are victimized by criminals who are dressed in police uniforms, and who commit theft, extortion or sexual assaults.
[22] According to the US Department of State, Guatemala's high murder rate is caused by four principal factors: an increase in drug trafficking; a growing prevalence of gang-related violence; a heavily armed civilian population; and a weak and incompetent police/judicial system.
[25] In September 2019, the government announced a state of siege in five northeastern provinces after three police officers were killed by drug traffickers.
[8] Femicide to an extent is a function of a historical gendered violence that the state and society permitted legally and socially throughout the 20th century.
[4] Such gangs began to proliferate in the mid-1990s after large numbers of undocumented Central American immigrants were deported from Los Angeles, particularly to El Salvador.
UN studies have reported that in Guatemala and the other northern nations of Central America, "stark wealth disparities provide criminals with both a justification and an opportunity for their activities.
"[6] In addition to poverty, youth in Guatemala are compelled to join gangs by fierce peer pressure, by the desire for support of those with broken families, and by the allure of an outlaw lifestyle.
[33][34] Although the exact motive behind each lynching is not always known, victims are often accused of committing extortion by demanding the payment of protection money – a crime which is rarely prosecuted successfully in the country.
The video was widely shared on YouTube and Guatemalan social media networks, where it sparked outcry against such acts of vigilante justice.
[36][37] While youth in Guatemala represent key actors of increasing violence in the country, they also remain among the most affected by the consequences of a violent society.
[4] Children commonly migrate to the United States, often to reunite with family, and to flee conditions related to crime like societal violence, abuse in the home, and social exclusion.
[38] The year of 2014 saw a surge in numbers of unaccompanied children migrants from Central America, predicted to reach 70,000 and resulting in the 2014 American immigration crisis.
Additionally, twenty-three percent of the Guatemalan children interviewed noted that they had survived domestic violence by their parents or guardians.