Guatemala creates new border security force

GUATEMALA CITY: Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday unveiled a new border security force created with US help to patrol the frontier with El Salvador in an effort to fight cross-border crime.
The unit of 150 police and 100 soldiers is called the Xinca Task Force and will use 32 patrol vehicles donated by the United States to cover the border area in the southeast of the country, Interior Minister Francisco Rivas told reporters.
It adds to three other border forces already operating in Guatemala: the Tecun Uman group that patrols the border with Mexico to the north, and the Chroti and Trinational units along the El Salvador and Honduras borders.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras together make up Central America's "Northern Triangle", which suffers violent gang crime, corruption and poverty, all of which fuel irregular emigration, mostly to the United States.
The US has adopted a strategy of funding programs to promote stability and prosperity in the Northern Triangle while also trying to make irregular emigration from there more difficult and cracking down on organised criminal groups and drug smuggling.
Rivas said he was sure that, with the new Xinca Taskforce, "the fight against narco-trafficking, and the smuggling of goods and people will happen in a much more effective way". — AFP