For anyone paying attention, Guatemala has received international praise over the past year for its achievements in dealing with corruption. This past summer, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned from office on charges of corruption. With help from a United Nations backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG), high level corruption was exposed in the forms of embezzlement of public funds and a massive customs fraud scheme. Though the public outcry led to their resignation, the bigger problems plaguing Guatemala are due to the growing role of organized criminal groups and the presence of the drug trade. As Mexico becomes more difficult to traverse illegally by land, Guatemala offers an alternative route for traffickers to move drugs by maritime routes.

During my recent stay in Guatemala, most days consisted of newspaper headlines marking another murder tied to criminal organizations demanding higher extortion payments. This to me did not see like a country managing their corruption problem. Though the international image presents an improvement, criminal organizations maintain, or even have grown, their power in the country over the years.

Unlike its neighbors Mexico and El Salvador, Guatemala has no notorious national gangs, but it is nonetheless vulnerable to their influence. Mexican drug trafficking organizations have established a strong foothold in Guatemala, specifically the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2010, Guatemala’s national police chief and head of the antinarcotics unit were arrested on drug charges and connections to the Zetas. In addition, according to Insight Crime, the murder rate, already one of the highest in the world, continues to rise: In 2002, there were 28 murders per 100,000 inhabitants; by 2008, that had reached 48 murders per 100,000. Authorities say as much as 45 percent of the homicides are connected to drug trafficking activities.

The last month I spent in Antigua, a small town outside of Guatemala City, there was a buzz of worry around the rising number of bus drivers, known as “pilotos,” who were being murdered on their bus routes by members of criminal organizations looking for exhortation money. There is no way to know which groups are controlling which transportation routes, but the rumors were that the killings have been rising since the holidays, as criminals groups sought a “Christmas bonus” which was not immediately paid, leaving citizens subject to violence and intimidation until a deal is struck.

On January 15^th, Guatemala inaugurated a new president, Jimmy Morales, who ran on a campaign to further fight corruption, but when talking to locals, there is little hope for real change. On one hand, Morales is tied to the corrupt former army officials who some say will use him as a puppet, and on the other, Guatemala is becoming further embroiled in drug dealing, which can only lead to more violence and corruption.

If Morales can be more than the puppet government he is predicted to be, and keep law enforcement free of criminals, there may be hope that a stand can be taken against these bus driver killings so that ordinary citizens would not have to live in fear over territorial disputes. For a country that has been though so much struggle already, the people deserve peace and the ability to focus on economic development, but with the tumultuous politics and pervasive drug trafficking organizations in the region (with ample money to further corrupt good governance), I have little hope.