Guatemala
🇬🇹Republic of Guatemala
Guatemala defense profile covering organized crime, cartel and gang pressure, migration, rule-of-law crisis, food insecurity, border security, and source limits.
| Demographics | |
| Population, Total | 18.41M persons (2024) |
| Population Growth Rate | 1.54% (2024) |
| Urban Population Ratio | 55.95% (2024) |
| Working Age Population | 63.57% (2024) |
| Literacy Rate | 82.11% (2024) |
| Tertiary Education Enrollment Rate | 27.29% (2023) |
| Life Expectancy | 72.6 years (2023) |
| Defense | |
| Military Expenditure | 415.19M current US$ (2024) |
| Military Expenditure Ratio | 0.37 % of GDP (2024) |
| Military | |
| Military Branches | Army of Guatemala (Ejercito de Guatemala; aka Armed Forces of Guatemala or Fuerzas Armadas de Guatemala): Land Forces (Fuerzas de Tierra), Naval Forces (Fuerzas de Mar), and Air Force (Fuerza de Aire) (2025) text (2025) |
| Military Service Age | 18 years (2025) |
| Active Military Personnel | approximately 20,000 active Armed Forces (2025) count (2025) |
| Military Equipment Overview | the military is lightly armed with an inventory mostly comprised of ageing US equipment; in recent years, the US has provided additional secondhand equipment (2025) text (2025) |
| Conscription System | 18 text (2025) |
| Economy | |
| GDP (Nominal) | 113.20B current US$ (2024) |
| GDP (PPP) | 264.47B current international $ (2024) |
| GDP Per Capita | 6,150.03 current US$ (2024) |
| GDP Growth Rate | 3.65% (2024) |
| Inflation Rate | 2.87% (2024) |
| Foreign Reserves | 24.41B current US$ (2024) |
| Trade Balance | -17.61B current US$ (2024) |
| Industry | |
| Manufacturing Value Added | 15.38B current US$ (2024) |
| Industry GDP Ratio | 21.73 % of GDP (2024) |
| Manufacturing GDP Ratio | 13.59 % of GDP (2024) |
| Natural Resources | petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle, hydropower text |
| Natural Gas Production | 2.02 cubic meters (2023) |
| Technology | |
| R&D Spending Ratio | 0.06 % of GDP (2021) |
| Researchers Per Million | 14.53 per million (2021) |
| Patent Applications | 9 applications (2021) |
| High-Tech Exports | 365.55M current US$ (2024) |
| Internet Penetration | 56.05% (2023) |
| Infrastructure | |
| Air Transport Passengers | 221,478 passengers (2023) |
| Electricity Access | 100.00% (2023) |
| Logistics Performance Index | 2.6 index 1-5 (2022) |
| Total Area | 108,889 km² |
| Land Area | 107,159 km² |
| Water Area | 1,730 km² |
| Land Boundaries | 1,667 km |
| Coastline | 400 km |
| Railway Length | 800 km (2018) |
| Irrigated Land | 3,375 km² (2012) |
| Merchant Marine | 9 count (2023) |
| Electricity Capacity | 5 kW (2023) |
| Electricity - Fossil Fuel | 25.40% (2023) |
| Electricity - Hydroelectric | 42.00% (2023) |
| Electricity - Solar | 1.80% (2023) |
| Electricity - Wind | 2.60% (2023) |
| Electricity Consumption | 12.22 kWh (2023) |
| Other Statistics | |
| Terrain | two east-west trending mountain chains divide the country into three regions: the mountainous highlands, the Pacific coast south of mountains, and the vast northern Peten lowlands text |
| Climate | tropical; hot, humid in lowlands; cooler in highlands text |
| Natural Hazards | numerous volcanoes in mountains, with occasional violent earthquakes; Caribbean coast extremely susceptible to hurricanes and other tropical storms volcanism: significant volcanic activity in the Sierra Madre range; Santa Maria (3,772 m) has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; Pacaya (2,552 m) is one of the country's most active volcanoes, with frequent eruptions since 1965; other historically active volcanoes include Acatenango, Almolonga, Atitlan, Fuego, and Tacana; see note 2 under "Geography - note" text |
| Government Type | presidential republic text |
| Capital | Guatemala City text |
| Legal System | civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts text |
| Administrative Divisions | 22 text |
| Internet Country Code | .gt text |
Guatemala's security geography links Mexico, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, ports, cities, and migration corridors.
Guatemala sits on routes connecting Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. That geography gives criminal networks opportunities to move people, drugs, weapons, and illicit proceeds through cities, rural departments, and border crossings.
Security policy therefore has to cover both urban gangs and transnational trafficking corridors.
Corruption and justice-sector disputes affect the state's ability to confront organized crime credibly.
Guatemala holds competitive elections, but organized crime and corruption weaken government effectiveness. The justice system and anti-corruption institutions are central security terrain because prosecutions, prison control, and police legitimacy depend on them.
A defense profile should treat courts and prosecutors as part of state capacity, not only as political background.
Criminal organizations and gangs create localized areas of elevated risk, including parts of Guatemala City and border departments.
Travel guidance identifies cartel, gang, and criminal-organization risks in specific zones and departments. These threats can involve extortion, armed attacks, kidnapping, prison unrest, and intimidation of officials or communities.
These risks are interconnected with broader regional issues, including migration patterns, Central American gang networks, and unresolved post-civil-war justice challenges.
Violence, weak services, climate stress, and poverty contribute to displacement and migration decisions.
Guatemala's civilian security is tied to rural poverty, food insecurity, Indigenous community vulnerability, and climate shocks. These problems can intensify migration pressure and make communities more vulnerable to criminal recruitment or coercion.
The security page should explain why human development is part of state resilience.
Guatemala's security value lies in how organized crime, border corridors, and weak local institutions interact.
Guatemala is best understood as a criminal-governance case rather than a conventional battlefield case. Organized crime, smuggling routes, prison corruption, and uneven local enforcement shape how much state authority actually exists in different parts of the country.
Border pressure is not just a police issue. It affects migration, revenue collection, rural security, and the credibility of institutions. Criminal power and state weakness reinforce each other, especially where geography connects Guatemala to regional trafficking and transit networks.
Guatemala is best assessed as a criminal-governance case, with localized rather than nationwide battlefield risk.
Open sources are strong for identifying corruption, organized-crime pressure, and high-risk locations. They are weaker for measuring exact cartel influence, gang membership, or the real-time balance inside prisons and local police commands.
Criminal control and governance erosion are distinct from conventional armed conflict and require separate analytical frameworks.
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