The Guatemala government warned on Monday, June 16 that it will not tolerate corruption in the prison and that more than 20 requisitions in recent weeks have allowed to recover control of prisons.
We are not going to tolerate any act of corruption of our staff, the Vice Minister of Security of the Ministry of the Interior, José Portillo, expressed a press conference.
According to the official, in the last 15 days 21 requisitions were carried out, with the support of the security forces, in the prisons of the prison system. In addition, for 2025 a total of 140 operations of this type have been carried out.
In these proceedings dozens of appliances and cell phones have been seized, as well as weapons and other prohibited objects within prisons.
“We are firmly controlling bribe and corruption,” said the vice minister, recently appointed in office, who added: “We will be strong and forceful in the prison system.”
Portillo explained that the purpose of the requisitions is to attack the structural causes of the prisons, where it originates, in many cases, the violence that affects the country, in addition to the hired gun and extortion.
In his opinion, recent operations have allowed crime to reduce and identify red foci in the country.
“We are impacting criminal structures,” he said.
According to data released on June 6 by the director of the National Civil Police, David Custodio Boto, during the first five months of the year 1,385 homicides were counted, which represents a 15% increase compared to the same period of the previous year.
According to experts on the subject, thousands of Guatemalan merchants are victims of extortion that originate precisely in prisons.