[1] Sex trafficking, kidnapping, and illegal adoption rings are part of a larger string of criminal acts.
In 2012, the Guatemalan government established a trafficking prosecution unit that also helps prosecutors in the country's outer regions.
[12] Guatemala is the second most popular country for foreign adoption after China, which has opened up the market for trafficked children to become a lucrative industry.
[18] The borders in Central America involving Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Belize and Nicaragua are considered hot-spots for human trafficking supply and transit.
[20] It has been stated that Guatemala has highest rates of trafficked child labor in the Americas with over 800,000 children forcefully working for gangs and other organizations.
[12] Guatemalan law enforcement require international assistance to fight human trafficking and assure justice.
[4] A project funded by the Government of Canada that supports the SICA Member States (Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua) improve the collaboration against Human Trafficking within Central America.
[21] For a more efficient international cooperation that has resulted in a considerable increase in the number of convictions, the government has established appropriate laws.
[21] However, while the government has improved its efforts to stop human trafficking, inadequate funding and training remain restricting the capability of the officer division to manage various investigations and prosecutions in the whole country.
[24][23] Similar to other penalties for severe crimes that are adequately stringent, the new anti-trafficking law prescribes sentence between eight and eighteen years of imprisonment which are sufficiently and rigorous by the government.