Mexico’s drug war comes to Guatemala

Mexico’s drug war comes to Guatemala | PRI's The World: "Mexico’s war against the drug cartels is spilling south into Guatemala. The cartels are threatening to take over parts of northern Guatemala near the Mexican border.

In response, the Guatemalan government has taken a page from its larger neighbor — and deployed the army to try and push the traffickers out. The government has declared a “state of siege” in one province, called Alta Verapaz, that it said has been overrun by one of Mexico’s most feared cartels.

As he shows a reporter a rural farm seized from alleged drug traffickers, Guatemalan Army Col. Marco Tulio Diaz points an unfinished barn for thoroughbreds and abandoned fields that stretch beyond the horizon. Diaz said Mexican traffickers used the farm as a place to slaughter enemies, rape local women and bury weapons. “A lot of evil took place here,” he added."