Whack-a-mole Drug War: Guatemalan town falls victim to Mexico's bloody narco wars

The 'Guardian' of Britain takes an "on the ground" look at a small village in the Guatemalan jungle over run by narcos.

Guatemalan town falls victim to Mexico's bloody narco wars | World news | The Guardian: "Welcome to El Naranjo, a sun-blistered one-street town on Guatemala's northern frontier, once in the middle of nowhere, now in the middle of Latin America's drug war. Mexico's narco-fuelled bloodshed, with 36,000 dead in four years, is dripping here and across much of central America. ...

On the ground you can travel for days without seeing another soul, but when the forest gives way to pasture and bony cattle it means a town is close. El Naranjo is a few hours' bumpy drive from where twenty-seven peasants were slaughtered. It reeks of fear.

Don't mention this to anyone here, please," begged one shopkeeper, after casually mentioning that los pesados (literally "the heavy ones"), favoured his $130 snakeskin boots. He had inadvertently broken a rule: don't talk about narcos, not even in euphemism.A community leader who requested anonymity said Zetas were forcing people to choose sides, breeding a paralysing suspicion. "There are eyes and ears everywhere." He shook his head. "One of the least populated places on the planet and it's claustrophobic.""