Guatemala’s two major gangs appear to be evolving in different directions: The notorious 18th Street has waded into politics; the government suggests it is being politicized to stoke chaos. Meanwhile, in a series of strategic moves, MS-13 has wrested the monopoly on street-level drug dealing from the cartel that had held it for over 30 years.
Carlos Martínez writes in El Faro English about the changes to gang dynamics taking place in Guatemala with one heading into politics while the other consolidates its street level criminality. One into the headlines, and the other away from them. The piece also looks at the well -connected Torres family and its links.
On January 18, President Bernardo Arévalo was besieged by gang-fueled chaos. He wanted to bang his fist on the table in a show of strength, to give the impression that he held —or could hold— the reins of security in Guatemala.
He declared a 30-day state of emergency via a national broadcast, with an insinuation that the entire country understood: “The torres [towers] of corruption and impunity that for decades have sustained the destabilizing structures behind [the security crisis] are falling…”
Arévalo had been in a slump in terms of security: From July to October 2025, there were several prison riots. In October of that year, 20 leaders of the 18th Street gang escaped from the Fraijanes II prison in an operation that could hardly have occurred without the complicity of officials in his government.
2025 ended with a 10 percent increase in homicides, most of which occurred in the capital, Guatemala City. And 2026 did not start any better: On January 17, 18th Street staged a coordinated riot in three prisons, taking nearly 50 hostages. A day later, members of that gang murdered 10 police officers. So that night, with the bodies still unburied, he had to appear strong.
[…]
While 18th Street was being discussed on national television and found itself at the center of political mudslinging, the Mara Salvatrucha-13 was making its moves away from the headlines and as far as possible from the political discourse: forceful, brutal, silent, strategic, permeated by the personality of its leader, Jorge Jair de León, “Diabólico.” From the shadows, the Mara struck a key blow that allowed it to climb several rungs in the urban drug trade and, consequently, in the gang’s criminal power structure.
You can read the full article, with links and photos, here, Guatemalan Gangs Step Into Politics and Drug Trafficking.
Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Justice, Poverty, Violence
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
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