Guatemalan authorities have made multiple busts of prison guards involved in sexual exploitation schemes that victimize women behind bars, showing rare government action on a problem that often remains hidden, and highlighting the challenge of battling corruption in the penitentiary system.
Police detained eight prison guards on August 16, alleging they sexually exploited female prisoners in the departments of Suchitepéquez, El Progreso, Baja Verapaz, and Guatemala. The guards charged male inmates money for transporting women to other prisons and forcing them to perform sexual acts, prisons director Sergio Vela told local media.
This case follows the arrest in March of nine guards who allegedly trafficked young girls into prisons, where they were sexually abused by inmates. Some of the male prisoners belonged to the Barrio 18 gang, and after abusing the girls they then made them carry out crimes outside the prison, according to reporting. The case was part of a broader investigation by a branch of the Attorney General’s Office focused on human trafficking (Unidad contra Estructuras Criminales y Casos Especiales de la Fiscalía contra la Trata de Personas). Another 2023 investigation found three other guards in Mazatenango, a mixed-gender prison, charged between $40 and $200 per girl.
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Guatemala’s overcrowded prisons are hotspots of criminal activity, and corruption within prison staff is rampant. Both the Barrio 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), who victimize women in trafficking schemes, have considerable power behind bars.
The number of women in prisons is rising, putting more women in conditions that make them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse. In 2015, women represented 9.1% of the total prison population in Guatemala. By 2023, that number had increased to 12.1%. Most female inmates are aged between 18 and 35, said Andrea Barrios, who runs Colectivo Artesanas, a non-governmental organization that advocates for the rights of women in prison in Guatemala.
Since taking office, the government of President Bernardo Areválo has vowed to curb criminal activity and corruption inside prisons, and authorities have launched a number of raids in key penitenciaries and removed dozens of guards from their posts. But they face an uphill struggle. “The problem that we have is a penitentiary system that’s out of control, in which many of the guards are involved [in corruption]”, said Francisco Jiménez, Guatemala’s Interior Minister to Prensa Libre.
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These recent cases in Guatemala’s prisons could be the tip of the iceberg of incidents of sexual exploitation enabled by prison guards and systemic corruption.
Barrios, who has daily contact with female inmates in Guatemala, says this kind of sexual exploitation is common, but rarely investigated and prosecuted.
After the recent arrests, the female victims were moved to other prisons. “That’s punishing them because it is moving them away from where they know, and their families,” said Barrios. None of the prison guards have been charged with human trafficking, and instead were accused of neglecting their duties and put under house arrest.
Years of abandonment, overcrowding, corruption, and a lack of professionalization in the penitentiary system have made the oversight of prisons nearly impossible, said Corinne Dedik, an analyst at the Guatemala-based think tank Centro de Investigaciones Económicas Nacionales (CIEN).
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Systematic corruption within prison authorities is necessary for these types of human trafficking and exploitation schemes to operate. No one can leave and enter without the participation of prison guards, including those in charge of female-only areas, as well as prison directors, explained Barrios.
A lack of career development or advancement also brings problems. “There is no career path in Guatemala’s penitentiary system. Everyone gets their training, and they stay at that level because there’s no chance to move up,” said Dedik. This opens the door to criminal incentives, she explained.
Most prisons in the country house both sexes, with women living in female-only zones in male-dominated prisons. The porous separation between the men and women inside creates opportunities for exploitation, according to a 2023 report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“Women in prison have many needs that the state doesn’t meet and their families can only provide limited support,” said Barrios. Products, like shampoo, soap, and sanitary towels are scarce, and families often have to provide them for inmates. A large percentage of women in prisons are also single mothers and the main breadwinners in their families. “Those in power take advantage of the women’s needs and profit from it, and that’s where the authorities are responsible,” said Barrios. The control of criminal groups like the Barrio 18 in prisons allows them to further corrupt and control officials to allow them to bring in women and girls.
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The government faces a difficult problem in tackling systemic corruption. “The penitentiary system stagnated in the 60s and 70s, but today the world out there is different,” said Dedik. “These types of situations can only be improved using sustainable methods, which would require fundamental, deep reform.”
Barrios welcomed the latest arrests in sexual exploitation cases in prisons, but said that she would love to see prevention measures put in place, such as better vetting of prison authorities and surveillance of visitation areas.
Featured image: Police detain prison guards involved in a sexual exploitation scheme in Guatemala. Credit: Guatemala Attorney General’s Office.