Mexico’s Other Border: Immigration and Drugs Along the Mexico/Guatemala Frontier

“It was a nice little town,” Maria explains as she sets the food on the table. Sitting down she continues, “a safe place to grow up.” Her eyes are full of memories as she drifts back to a previous time; she even draws a little map of the local fútbol field and her old house on a napkin. The mood changes when she begins to talk about how the small Guatemalan town has changed for the worse since her childhood. Her sadness is palpable as we begin to eat and she starts describing a recent visit to her hometown, which hugs the border with Mexico. Now, she paints a picture of a place under siege by Mexican drug gangs and booming levels of crime and delinquency.

I stayed in Maria’s house during a recent trip to Central America and, unfortunately, her story is not unique, as the Mexico-Guatemala border has become a very dangerous place for many. While coverage most commonly focuses on the important issues surrounding the border seperating the U.S. from Mexico, there is a border even further south. The one between Mexico and Guatemala cuts through a terrain consisting of jungles and volcanoes that stretches from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean. Along this other border, running along Mexico’s sourthern expanse, a drama of drug-related violence and illegal immigration is being played out daily.

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This analysis was prepared by Research Associate Andrew Eller

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