Guatemala Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Guatemala-Belize: demarcated but disputed boundary due to Guatemala’s claims to more than half of Belizean territory; line of Adjacency operates in lieu of an international boundary to control influx of Guatemalan squatters onto Belizean territory; smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and human trafficking are also problems; the dispute was referred to the ICJ in 2019 for binding resolution; the 12-nm territorial sea claims of Belize and Honduras close off Guatemalan access to Caribbean in the Bahia de Amatique; maritime boundary remains unresolved pending further negotiation

Guatemala-Mexico: thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans cross the porous border with Mexico looking for work in Mexico and the US

Refugees and internally displaced persons

IDPs: 242,000 (more than three decades of internal conflict that ended in 1996 displaced mainly the indigenous Maya population and rural peasants; ongoing drug cartel and gang violence) (2022)

Illicit drugs

a major transit country for illegal drugs; illicit cultivation of opium poppies, marijuana, and coca plants in rural areas; a major source of precursor or essential chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics