A force of approximately 300 members of an elite Guatemalan special operations force, the Kaibiles, will be deployed to the Central American Country's border with Mexico to combat drug traffickers and organised crime groups. The unit will operate in the jungle-covered northern region of Peten and will be fully operation by June 30. At their training base in Poptun, Peten, Kaibiles are trained in urban combat and jungle warfare skills for their special operations. "This is the training that a Kaibil is given during his training, to make him stronger, to prepare him to finish this course and be capable of special operations, as part of an elite group," said Colonel Ismar Aldor Mendez, the commander of the Poptun training base. In May of 2011, a ruthless Mexican drug gang, the Zetas, beheaded 27 farm workers on a Peten ranch in a dispute with the farm's owner. Guatemalan army spokesman Colonel Rony Urizar said that said that the Kaibil training had successfully transitioned from their original mission combating leftist guerrillas during Guatemala's 1960-1996 internal conflict. "After being originally trained for the war against subversives, we are now in an urban combat phase in which we must train for situations against organized crime and other types of illegal armed organizations that at this time are the type of threat we face in our country," he said. Guatemalan President Otto Perez himself served in the Kaibil unit during the country's long and bloody civil war. The ...