Social cleansing
After the civil war in Guatemala, many soldiers formed criminal organizations. That way, they could avoid that a efficient transition government would be put in place, which would persecute people who had committed war crimes.. The process of transition towards a democratic government also threatened these groups, who then executed people who were politically active. A very notable example is the assasination of the bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera. A commander of a military base ordered his assassination.  Edgar Gutierrez, a political commentator, noted that these groups were motivated by a higer ambition. According zo Guiterrez, they wanted contorl of the state and the economy. Most of the information officers of the military dictatorship were infiltrated into orgaised crime, either part of the state, or close to it.