Guatemalan authorities dismantled a migrant trafficking network destined for the United States on Tuesday, which included police officers, according to Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez.The minister detailed that 36 people were arrested, including 23 active police officers and two retired ones.
“Today (Tuesday) morning, a criminal structure dedicated to human trafficking was dismantled,” Jiménez said on the social network X.The traffickers were “using police agents, corrupting them to guarantee the transit of the people they were trafficking on routes in the country,” he added.
For its part, the United States Embassy in Guatemala stated on X that the operation to dismantle the network was carried out “under the leadership” of the Guatemalan Ministry of Interior and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency.
The diplomatic mission added that the structure “exploited” “almost 10,000 migrants” and highlighted “the bilateral coordination and information exchange” to execute the arrests.
Central America serves as a corridor for thousands of migrants from different parts of the world seeking to reach the United States. Additionally, thousands of Central Americans leave their countries to escape poverty, lack of employment, low wages, and criminal violence.
Jiménez explained that the operation is part of “the strategy” of President Bernardo Arévalo “to not criminalize migrants, but to pursue and dismantle human trafficking structures.””The result of this dismantling was due to internal collaboration from the National Civil Police itself,” the minister indicated.
During the operation, which covered 34 raids in towns in the east, west, south, and the capital of the country (center), “four vehicles, a firearm, and cash” were also seized, prosecutor Marvin Orellana told journalists. Orellana detailed that the network moved migrants from Russia, China, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Vietnam, among other nationalities.
