Private securityPrivate security is good business in Guatemala
In the United States there are 1.09 million private guards — that is, one guard for every 280 people; in Guatemala, a country of 13 million people, there are between 100,000 to 150,000 guards (the exact number is not known since many of these companies do not bother to register with the authorities); this is one guard for every 85 to 130 residents; the combined number of state and federal police in the United States is 883,600; Guatemala has roughly 22,000 active police officers
When it comes to crime and lawlessness, few countries could match South Africa. Just one example: The United States has a population of 307,000,000. South Africa’s population is 49,000,000. The number of murders committed in the United States between April 2008 and March 2009: 16,204. The comparable number in South Africa during the same period: 18,148. The murder rate in South Africa is 38.6 murders per 100,000 citizens. The world’s average for murder is 5 per 100 000.
The prevalence of crime, especially violent crime, is one manifestation of lawlessness. Another manifestation is the health of the private security industry. The business of private security thrives in countries on which the government does not offer sufficient protection to the people at the same time that it does not do enough to fight crime.
Two countries in which the private security sector thrives are South Africa and Brazil. There are other countries, too, in which offering private security services is a lucrative business.
Ezra Fieser writes in GlobalPost that Guatemala is one of these countries. Security guards employed by private companies in Guatemala outnumber police seven-to-one. Throughout Latin America private security guard forces dwarf police rolls (note that even the United States has more guards than police — 1.09 million to 883,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fieser notes that this is about one guard for every 280 people).
In few places, though, are the guards as prevalent as in Central America, a region named by the United Nations last year as the most dangerous non-combat region in the world. Guatemala alone claims an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 guards — the exact number is not known because most guard companies are not registered or operate illegally. Since the population of Guatemala is 13,300,000, it means that there is about one guard for every 85 to 130 residents. The country has roughly 22,000 active police officers.
The government has no standards for minimum training, age, or experience for guards. Roughly three-fourths come from rural, mostly poor areas where Spanish is the second language and few have better than a sixth-grade education.
