The US was aware of the problem because it kept close tabs on the military, but the fallout was also reaching the US-Mexico border. By the late 1990s, the Drug Enforcement Administration determined that 75 percent of all the cocaine that reached the US passed through Guatemala. According to the State Department, Guatemala was the “preferred transit point in Central America for onward shipments of cocaine.” In The Texas Observer, investigative journalist Frank Smyth wrote, “What distinguishes Guatemala from most other nations is that some of its military suspects are accused not only of
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