Security: Nicaragua puts up fight as crime washes over Central America

The nations of Central America’s northern region (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua) once were considered only transshipment points for cartels, then later storehouses. Now, drug gangs are increasingly bringing semi-processed coca paste here for final processing. The gangs’ corruptive influence also is reaching into higher levels of governments.

Recent weeks have brought successes in intercepting narcotics and in capturing alleged cartel couriers. But unmistakable evidence mounts that the magnitude and nature of the drug contagion are growing more complex, drawing stronger U.S. interest and the deployment of hundreds of U.S. Marines.

Nicaragua has surged into regional headlines for two seemingly unrelated events that both illustrate the transnational tentacles of crime groups.

“We are at a watershed,” said Robert Orozco Betancourt, a security analyst in Managua at the Institute of Strategic Studies and Public Policies. “We believe that the Central American situation will grow worse in the very short term.”

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