A total of 10 people were arrested in Comitancillo, department of San Marcos, Guatemala, accused of being part of a human trafficking network to the United States and of being the structure that transported the migrants killed in January 2021 in Camargo, Tamaulipas.
The operation is focused on the family of Adán Coronado Marroquín, one of the victims of those events and whom investigators point to as one of the possible guides of the group. Among those detained: the father, sister and a cousin of the deceased, while his uncle and other sister are in search and capture.
Guatemala’s Office against the Smuggling of Migrants had support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the investigations, which resulted in 19 raids in Comitancillo and 15 arrest warrants, of which 10 were executed. The charges are of human smuggling, money laundering, falsification of evidence and obstruction of justice.
The officers analyze the possible links of the network with organizations and authorities in Mexico, since various communications with our country have been intercepted. The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has opened a folder on human trafficking linked to that massacre and announced the link to the process of two officials of the National Institute of Migration (INM).
However, the Mexican and Guatemalan authorities are not collaborating in these works, which both countries are developing in parallel. So there are three investigations open simultaneously: one in Tamaulipas against the twelve police officers accused of the massacre and two others, in Mexico and Guatemala, for human trafficking.
The initial link
The operation hits the initial link in the chain of human trafficking: the alleged local polleros. According to Estuardo Campo, section prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office against the Smuggling of Migrants, they were the previous step to start the trip. On many occasions it was the migrants themselves who arrived requesting their services because they were a well-known family in the area. Elsewhere in Guatemala it is common for coyotes to advertise on radio stations, but in San Marcos this is a practice that disappeared years ago. However, it is not difficult to find one. When a member of the community wants to travel north, they always know who can help them.
Although the prosecutor’s office does not know when the network operated, they claim to have documented three traffic events counting on the one that led to the Camargo massacre. That is, the tragedy did not stop the impulse to look for alternatives in the United States since they organized, at least, two other trips. The investigations have also led to determine the price of each trip: between 95 thousand and 135 thousand quetzales (between 250 thousand and 365 thousand pesos).
Among those arrested are David “C” and Josefina “C”, father and sisters of Adán Coronado Marroquín. The first, in particular, was in charge of warning the families of the members of the expedition that their children had been killed and that they would never return. Also wanted are Ramiro “C”, uncle of the victim, who was mayor of Comitancillo and who is currently missing, and Diana Maricela “C”, the other sister of the deceased.
The Public Ministry and the Guatemalan Institute of Migration announced the operation, dismantling the “Coronado” gang, so this family is directly pointed to as responsible for this alleged network.
Among the detainees are also three notaries, of whom it has not been specified what their role in the plot is. In addition, it was requested to initiate actions to withdraw the immunity of the judge of First Instance Criminal, Narcoactivity and Crimes against the Environment of the department of San Marcos, Blanca Elizabeth González Gálvez, “for the possible commission of the crimes of abuse of authority, prevarication and passive bribery”,” without giving more details.
Toughening of penalties
Guatemalan research comes this far. But it remains to be seen how a network of a small rural municipality in Guatemala made it through Mexico, bypass the INM checkpoints and cross the territories controlled by organized crime to reach the United States. The telephone taps allow us to intuit that there was collaboration with Mexican authorities or criminal groups, but so far there are no specific accusations. The FGR should act here, but in this case there is no binational collaboration, according to sources in the Central American country. It should be recalled that Mexico and Guatemala established a working group on human trafficking after the Tuxtla Gutiérrez accident in which 55 people died.
This is almost the first time that the Central American State has been present in the case of the Camargo massacre after the bodies were buried. Although at first there were many promises, the families have not received anything. Just a handful of seeds and a few workshops. No truth, no justice, no reparation. Nor has Mexico taken steps in this direction. The State Commission for Attention to Victims of Tamaulipas promised economic support but this never materialized. In addition, the investigation is bogged down in Tamaulipas. Twelve police officers are imprisoned but the mid-term hearing has been postponed up to twice.
After the Tuxtla Gutierrez incident, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei called for tougher penalties for migrant smuggling.
This discourse was taken up again on the occasion of the operation against the alleged network of smugglers, whom they accuse of “deceiving” migrants. But given the lack of expectations in a territory where six out of ten are poor, migrating to the US remains the only alternative. With no options to transit legally, these networks are the only hope. In fact, even the investigations themselves recognize this: it is the migrants who are looking for the coyotes.
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