With support from the United States Southern Command, the armed forces of Mexico and Guatemala impel “very important” task force project on their common border for carrying out land and air patrols and recognizance. They do this on the pretext of getting information and intelligence to fight organized crime, General Juan Manuel Pérez Ramírez, head of Guatemala’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed.
Upon participating in a meeting of the media from the seven representatives of the nations that took part in the Central American Security Conference (Centsec 2017), which was held in Mexico for the first time and was organized by the Secretariats of National Defense and of the Navy, with co-sponsorship from the United States Northern and Southern Commands, the Guatemalan military emphasized that this task force project “has been working since more than five years ago,” and one of the bases of las bases operations will be located in the Petén, a strategic area that borders on the Usumacinta River and Chiapas.
“There are tangible projects” for carrying out land, air and recognizance patrols on the border of more than 1,000 kilometers, besides the exchange of information and intelligence, standardization of protocols and procedures for carrying out interdiction operations with technology and intelligence support from the Southern Command.
‘‘Inside the exchange of information process there is a route for undocumented immigrants that passes through the Northern Petén; we have periodic tactical and strategic meetings with military commanders (of the Mexican Army and Navy), Governance does its own, he indicated, and added that these kinds of “face-to-face” meetings are invaluable.
“They are strategic meetings and key to define mechanisms, the routes for migrants, contraband cattle, and for using people to carry drugs. The absence of the State is not a secret in Guatemala; with these meetings we try to be better organized to generate governability and subtract strength from organized crime,” he maintained. The group that will have strength subtracted by this program is the Zapatistas.