More on the Zetas in Guatemala

I wondered a while back about how closely linked the Zetas in Mexico and those in Guatemala are; today's article in the Post has an answer: quite close indeed.

U.S. law enforcement agents say Turcios and other alleged local drug bosses, including Walter Overdick, known as "El Tigre," may have brought the Zetas into the country as partners or protectors but were quickly muscled aside:

"They invited the Zetas to the party, and the Zetas decided to take over," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his work in the region and security policies.

Then again, a couple of paragraphs later, the authors report:

None of the 21 suspects taken into custody since December in Coban is a Mexican national, and authorities said the Zetas commanders have probably slipped back into Mexico or relocated to more lawless parts of Guatemala.

The second fact doesn't necessarily negate the first, and the explanation offered isn't implausible, but the absence of Mexicans certainly should call the easy explanations for Tamaulipas taking over Guatemala into question a bit.

Also, this line jumped out at me:

And the boss of all bosses, the billionaire Sinaloa drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" ("Shorty") Guzman, was seized in Guatemala in 1999, only to escape in a laundry basket from a Mexican prison two years later.

The clause at the end indicates that it wasn't just a slip of the finger, but rather a significant gap in knowledge, as Chapo's arrest came in 1993, and was a famous episode even at the time, what with his connection to Cardinal Posadas' murder. Post correspondents: read this book.