Guatemalan Cops Fired for Corruption

GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) – Atotal of 84 officers of Guatemala’sNational Civil Police were fired last weekfor their involvement in organized crime,according to Minister of the Interior,Carlos Vielman.The minister said the decision toremove the officers came after an internalinvestigation revealed that the cops werelinked to organized crime in Guatemala,especially drug trafficking.Some of the corrupt officers havebeen accused of stealing confiscatedcocaine from police warehouses, drawingblistering criticism from the United Statesabout Guatemala’s failings in the war ondrugs.Vielman said the internal crackdownis an effort to restore public faith and confidencein the national police force, whichwas created in 1997 as a product of thePeace Accords.