ON JULY 14, Guatemalan state prosecutor Juan Carlos Martinez was murdered in a suburb of Guatemala City. Suspicion immediately fell on the narcotics gangs that continue to fuel violence in Guatemala and throughout the region. As Reuters reported, Martinez had been “investigating the murder of three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American parliament.” The Salvadoran politicians, members of the ruling center-right ARENA party, were assassinated 17 months ago in Guatemala. After Martinez was killed, Reuters quoted El Salvador’s president, Antonio Saca, as saying, “We are talking about the big league, powerful drug cartels that are doing everything possible to keep people from knowing the truth.”
The Martinez murder offers a grisly reminder of Latin America’s crime problem, which is especially bad in Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. That problem must be addressed if the region is to fulfill its economic potential.
