see also Crime in Guatemala
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Latin American countries have a long history of using the armed forces to carry out internal policing, usually with US backing. President Otto Pérez Molina, elected in 2012, is a career military official, and has stepped up the use of military reinforcement in the country's law enforcement. Guatemala’s army has a poor record of human rights violations. During the country’s civil war from 1960-1996, 200,000 people were killed and 45,000 forcibly disappeared. According to the Historical Clarification Commission, Guatemala’s truth and reconciliation commission, the Guatemalan state (military and government paramilitaries) was responsible for over 90 percent of the human rights abuses. More recently, in October of 2012, six people were killed and another 34 injured when soldiers open fired into a crowd of indigenous protestors. The military has also been tied to drug trafficking and organized crime.
Military deployment
Since 2012, the government has opened at least five new military bases, with over 21,000 troops deployed throughout nine states. These "Citizen Security Squadrons" range from Huehuetenango to Quiche and Alta Verapaz, from Escuintla to Suchitepequez and Santa Rosa, and from Zacapa to Izabal and Chiquimula, as well as Guatemala City. A new military unit, known as Joint Task Force Tecún Umán (Fuerza de Tarea Tecún Umán), began operating in zones along the border shared with Mexico.