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The Drug War Goes On and On...

Guatemala is yet another case in point of why the drug war will go on forever. Since Castillo’s arrest, the SAIA has begun a process of internal reorganization, which includes polygraph (lie detector) and drug tests for all its officers and agents. This has indeed rocked the boat a bit. Eighteen senior officers resigned rather than face the tests.  This week, three more agents were arrested for marijuana possession. And today, the Guatemalan National Police announced that 1,500 officers would be fired last month for corruption.

But given what Smyth and we here at Narco News have written, this all starts to seem like a bit of a show. Why is all the Guatemalan state’s energy going into busting dirty cops, when the military is actually running much of the cocaine trafficking through that country directly? Who continues to protect the narco-soldiers? It’s all a game of finding the most expendable guy to take the fall, to generate headlines and arrest numbers based on superficial victories…

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