Los Zetas have left a bloody trail from Mexico of murder, narcotics trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, and blatant acts of terrorism. In Guatemala, Los Zetas have begun their reign of terror with subversive attempts at government, the military and police. This private army of insurgents believes they have mastered the strategic blueprint for ruthlessness, acquisition, and exploitation of free nations.

Guatemala, during this critical election year, faces the specter of hidden and secret alliances sought and forced on candidates for office, and the citizenry at large, by a cadre of organized criminals attempting to conquer strongholds for their own international operational venues. President Alvaro Colom believes that Los Zetas now control “seven or eight provinces — 35-40% of our territory.”

The threats and actuality of their often demonstrated power throughout Mexico and other areas of Central America is terrifying to those in harm’s way, and of curious and some sympathetic thoughts and opinion by the U.S. public and other nations of the world.

The U.S., Mexican and Guatemalan governments clearly see the war building on new fronts within the Central American northern triangle. The enemy’s unimaginable wealth, corruption potential, firepower, and forced influence on the masses, in virtually every example of crime conceivable, threaten economic stability. These insurgents do not represent a narcotic’s industry, but quite simply an organized criminal empire.

The U.S. and neighboring countries throughout the region must also face and monitor the reality of the potential of government elements embracing these de facto warlords, either out of fear for their existence, remuneration, or a combination thereof.

Neighboring Honduras is monitoring terror — like incidents that have occurred recently with the earmarks of similar organized criminality. It is no secret to Honduran officials that they see Mexico and Guatemala struggling with the identity crisis of being labeled “failed states” by much of the international media.

The continuing violence in the Bajo Aguan region of Honduras, in the eastern province of Colon, is a critical concern after 11 people were murdered in two incidents back in July. The government reported that six security guards were killed by armed peasants “attempting to take over a farm.” Five civilians were murdered the next day in what was described as “revenge.”

A land reform movement has been labeled as the rationale for these killings, and the theory is that the killings were linked to the “struggle for land.”

Days later, the head of the Authentic Peasant Protest Movement of Aguan (MARCA) was shot to death in terrorist fashion, close to his house, by two men on a motorcycle wearing baseball caps. The very next day the vice-president of the United Peasant Movement of Aguan (MUCA) and his wife were murdered in their house. The latest killings have brought the total to 36 deaths over the past two years.

The explanations by the national government and local authorities have lent their theory that these criminal elements “are outsiders.” The army task force commander in the area blamed “infiltrators from Venezuela and Nicaragua that have come to the area to arm and train the peasants.” Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said, these groups “call themselves peasants but may be groups of drug traffickers who want to establish themselves in this region and scare the people away.”

The head of the armed forces, Rene Osorio Canales, suggested that “Salvadorans could also be involved in fomenting violence in the area.” A leaked intelligence report in February of last year, “seen by newspaper La Prensa,” said, “The peasant groups had support from leftist movements, training from Colombian guerrillas, and strategic funding from narco-traffickers.”

The murder rates in both Guatemala and El Salvador are higher today than during their civil wars (1960-96 and 1980-92, respectively), and they have now brought on strangleholds by undermining political and judicial stability gained through those civil wars.

Law enforcement officials are faced with private and commercial aircraft transporting multi-tons of drugs from South America into Central America for distribution north. Venezuela and Honduras are main conduits among these trafficking routes.

Much deeper penetration throughout Central America of these organized murdering insurgents is expected due to their ever-increasing advanced technology and wealth. To break the impunity and power of these organizations, neighboring nations must effectively partner to mobilize and engage these criminal enterprises that include arms trafficking and financial crimes. Lack of training and equipment is also a critical concern in seeking to disrupt and dismantle these networks.

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.