LA REFORMA, Guatemala, (Reuters) – Residents of a poor Guatemalan town have rallied around a family sought by the United States for drug trafficking but respected at home for handing out food, jobs and medicine to people in need. Guatemala has become a major transit route for drugs smuggled north to Mexico and the United States, and in small towns like La Reforma, wealthy capos are filling the vacuum left by weak governments.
The country’s drug trade is run by powerful families that can wield vast control over their smuggling territory.
Hundreds of protesters recently staged a rally to support the notorious Lorenzana family after the Guatemalan police, army and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided La Reforma last month to arrest members accused of working with Mexico’s feared Gulf Cartel.
“The Lorenzana family generates jobs to provide daily bread for the poor. We support you from the bottom of our hearts,” read one demonstrator’s sign.
“The majority of people in this area work on the family’s melon and tobacco farms and if there wasn’t this work, we couldn’t pay for food or medicine,” said Miguel Saguil, 52, at the rally outside of one of the Lorenzana’s luxurious houses.
The hot and dusty land around La Reforma in eastern Guatemala is inhospitable and the region has one of the highest hunger rates in the country, with people often struggling to farm enough beans and corn to feed their families.
The government provides few welfare services and many fear their livelihoods will disappear if the Lorenzanas are arrested. The DEA joined Guatemalan security forces in last month’s raid, acting on outstanding U.S. arrest warrants for the family members.
But the Lorenzana patriarch Waldemar, three of his sons, and two other men linked to the family had already fled long before the helicopters swooped into town, likely tipped off about the operation.
