When explaining why the Executive insists on developing the project at that point of Izabalthe head of Defense described the area as a territory with conditions that have historically favored the operations of criminal structures.
“It is close to the border, there are not many roads, it is a reserved area and there is a nature reserve very close. The entire territory is ideal for the transfer not only of drugs, but also of weapons and migrants”he stated.
According to the official, the installation of a permanent State infrastructure would modify this dynamic.
“When the State arrives there, it obviously interrupts all the criminal activities that these structures have,” held.
High complexity area
Sáenz’s explanation adds to the statements previously made by other authorities such as the Minister of the Interior, Marco Antonio Villeda, who have also presented the construction of The Triumph as a strategy to recover state control in that area of the Guatemalan Caribbean.
After the temporary suspension of the work through an injunction, the government stated that local drug trafficking networks would oppose a project that involves a greater presence of security forces.
Villeda pointed out months ago that the land where the prison is built has been used for the drug transfer and which is currently also part of a corridor used for the illegal trafficking of jade and gold.
The Executive’s statements coincide with information from the Public Ministry and the General Subdirectorate of Analysis of Anti-Drug Information of the National Civil Policewhich are located in Morales the presence of criminal structures such as The Mendozas and The Berganzas, investigated by drug trafficking and other illicit economies.
According to these institutions, both groups have had a presence in a strategic territory for its proximity to the border and the routes used to transport illegal goods.
The farm where the prison will be built is also part of that context.
The property belonged to drug trafficker Mario Ponce Rodríguezcondemned in USA, and passed into the hands of the State through a process of domain forfeiture in 2015.
It was precisely on that land where the Government decided to build the new penitentiary center with capacity for more than 2 thousand deprived of liberty.
After several months of suspension, the Constitutional Court annulled the protection that kept construction paralyzed.
With this resolution, the Ministry of Defense plans to begin earthworks during July, the first phase of a work that, according to the official schedule, could conclude in 2027.
Different model
The minister also explained that the penitentiary system in the country has historically been associated with models such as the so-called penal farmsaimed at the rehabilitation of prisoners through agricultural and productive activities.
But it is a scheme that was not fully consolidated and the new project responds to a different logic, focused on control and security, said Sáenz.
“From penal farms to a maximum security prison are totally different concepts. It is a concept that does not exist in Guatemala, which is going to be implemented with this new prison”he stated.
He added that El Triunfo will be designed as a sentence enforcement center under a maximum security regime, focused on the strict control of people already sentenced.
“It is going to be a sentence enforcement center,” he indicated.