Private Security in Guatemala

the long version

Private security has become a global concern due to the lack of regulations, accountability and its consequences on democracy. Based on a historical-institutional approach this book explores the origins and development of private security in Guatemala. This book traces state trajectories and identifies critical junctures and causal mechanisms that led to an expansion of private security. Rather than resulting from the postwar levels of crime and institutional inefficiency that most explanations address, this book concludes that private security in Guatemala is an outcome of historical, political, and institutional processes.