US requests extradition of another member of Perez Molina administration

The United States had requested the extradition of another Guatemalan national. This time the US asked for former Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office of both Guatemala and the United States, Mauricio López Bonilla accepted money from organizations dedicated to drug trafficking, including the Los Zetas cartel, between 2010 and 2015.

The former minister used his “influences and authority” to facilitate drug trafficking operations in Guatemala. He reportedly gave them information on police operations and ordered National Civil Police agents to escort shipments of cocaine.

“These acts reduced the activities of the security forces and protected drug traffickers while transporting drugs within and through Guatemala,” a report explained, which establishes that he is officially accused of the crime of associating with criminals distributing five kilograms or more of cocaine, and with the knowledge that it would be imported into the United States.

Steven Dudley wrote published an extensive report on Bonilla for InSight Crime in December. Guatemala's homicide rate has decreased for nearly the last decade. Some of that decrease might be explained by police and justice sector reforms. However, the arrests and allegations against several members of the former administration (Perez Molina, Baldetti, and Bonilla) must lead one to believe a large share of that homicide decrease was the result of a pax mafioso between organized crime groups, drug traffickers, and the government of Guatemala.

The explanation for the decrease in homicides is somewhat more complicated that simply a pax mafioso, however, given that the decrease began before Perez Molina took office and has continued since his resignation and arrest.