Guatemala City, Guatemala (CNN) -- Three leading candidates for Guatemala's presidency sparred over policy proposals, but unanimously slammed the country's security situation in a debate co-hosted by CNN en Español Thursday night.
The Central American nation faces high levels of violence coupled with widespread corruption, the candidates said.
A complicated combination of factors fuel the problems, candidates told audience members at the debate, which was co-hosted by CNN affiliate Canal 3.
"There are no job opportunities," said candidate Eduardo Suger. "There is an absence of an effective justice system, an effective penitentiary system. There are external components, the flow of drug trafficking plus the internal factors of unemployment and the absence of opportunities."
But candidates differed sharply on the best ways to confront rising drug violence and the growing grasp of organized crime.
Candidate Manuel Baldizon of the Leader Party proposed creating a new national guard to take the lead on fighting drug syndicates that he said were increasingly coming across Guatemala's border with Mexico.
Suger -- whose CREO Party acronym stands for commitment, renewal and order -- disputed that approach, arguing that existing forces must develop more sophisticated operations.
"The population cannot wait ... years would go by before anything happened," he said.
Candidate Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party called for a "firm-handed" approach. The former military general called for "elite units of the army" to play a larger role.
"We are proposing the change that is necessary in Guatemala and we are ready to propel it forward," Perez Molina said when asked to summarize his candidacy in a few words.
Suger, an academic who is running for the second time, described himself as a "different kind of candidate." Baldizon, a businessman, introduced himself as a married Christian with two children. Polls have placed the two candidates tied for a second place spot behind Perez Molina.
Baldizon stressed the importance of crafting a regional security strategy.
"We have to form an alliance to combat organized crime," he said.
Guatemalans head to the polls September 11. There will be a second round of elections if no candidate receives more than 50% of votes.
Nearly 70% of Guatemalans ranked violence as the issue that most concerned them in a July poll by Vox Latina. The country has one of the highest homicide rates in Central America, according to a 2010 United Nations report.
Corruption and violence are high in Guatemala, according to the United Nations, which created a committee in 2006 to investigate those issues there.
Facundo Cabral, one of Latin America's best-known folk singers, was slain in the nation's capital last month.
Violence in Guatemala also drew international attention in May after investigators found the bodies of 27 dismembered and decapitated workers on a farm in a northern border province -- brutal evidence of what officials and analysts said is a dramatic spike in violence across the region as Mexican drug cartels expand their reach.
The Central American nation faces high levels of violence coupled with widespread corruption, the candidates said.
A complicated combination of factors fuel the problems, candidates told audience members at the debate, which was co-hosted by CNN affiliate Canal 3.
"There are no job opportunities," said candidate Eduardo Suger. "There is an absence of an effective justice system, an effective penitentiary system. There are external components, the flow of drug trafficking plus the internal factors of unemployment and the absence of opportunities."
But candidates differed sharply on the best ways to confront rising drug violence and the growing grasp of organized crime.
Candidate Manuel Baldizon of the Leader Party proposed creating a new national guard to take the lead on fighting drug syndicates that he said were increasingly coming across Guatemala's border with Mexico.
Suger -- whose CREO Party acronym stands for commitment, renewal and order -- disputed that approach, arguing that existing forces must develop more sophisticated operations.
"The population cannot wait ... years would go by before anything happened," he said.
Candidate Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party called for a "firm-handed" approach. The former military general called for "elite units of the army" to play a larger role.
"We are proposing the change that is necessary in Guatemala and we are ready to propel it forward," Perez Molina said when asked to summarize his candidacy in a few words.
Suger, an academic who is running for the second time, described himself as a "different kind of candidate." Baldizon, a businessman, introduced himself as a married Christian with two children. Polls have placed the two candidates tied for a second place spot behind Perez Molina.
Baldizon stressed the importance of crafting a regional security strategy.
"We have to form an alliance to combat organized crime," he said.
Guatemalans head to the polls September 11. There will be a second round of elections if no candidate receives more than 50% of votes.
Nearly 70% of Guatemalans ranked violence as the issue that most concerned them in a July poll by Vox Latina. The country has one of the highest homicide rates in Central America, according to a 2010 United Nations report.
Corruption and violence are high in Guatemala, according to the United Nations, which created a committee in 2006 to investigate those issues there.
Facundo Cabral, one of Latin America's best-known folk singers, was slain in the nation's capital last month.
Violence in Guatemala also drew international attention in May after investigators found the bodies of 27 dismembered and decapitated workers on a farm in a northern border province -- brutal evidence of what officials and analysts said is a dramatic spike in violence across the region as Mexican drug cartels expand their reach.
