( CNN ) -- To hear some Guatemalans tell it , three coordinated attacks that killed four prison officials in five hours Monday hardly raised anyone 's pulse . Police arrests two suspects in one of the three attacks . They 're used to this level of violence , said Fernando Carrera Castro , director of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies in Guatemala City . Although what happened is normal in Guatemala , Carrera said , that 's not to say that citizens are not concerned . `` We 're as scared as ever , '' he said Tuesday . Heather Berkman , a Central America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm , also has come to expect the violence . `` What else is new ? '' she said when asked about the killings . Samuel Logan , an expert on Latin American gangs , said all of Central America is under attack from organized crime cartels because the region is pinched between Colombia and Mexico , the two biggest sources of drugs in the area . U.S. interdiction efforts that have targeted the flow of drugs through the Caribbean Sea also have forced cartels to travel through the Central American isthmus , Logan said . Within Central America , he said , Guatemala , Honduras and El Salvador have the worst problems . Among those three nations , Guatemala stands out . `` When you talk about a country being hollowed out by organized crime , Guatemala is at the top of the list , '' Logan said . There are two main reasons , he said : geography and an incompetent and corrupt government . `` Guatemala bunches right up against Mexico , '' Logan said . `` Any spillover effect is almost certainly going south . '' Said Berkman , `` The narcos are coming down from Mexico . '' In addition , Logan said , the federal government is not able to control large segments of the country . For example , Peten state in northern Guatemala , bordered on two sides by Mexico , is lawless , he said . Berkman made the same point . `` The narcos control about 40 percent of the territory down there , which is pretty amazing , '' she said . Berkman also pointed out that the government has reduced anti-crime spending in the 2010 budget because of the nation 's dire economic situation . `` If you do n't have resources , you ca n't pay for troops and supplies and intelligence , '' she said . Logan , who just wrote a book on the Mara Salvatrucha gang of Central America , said there are two main criminal elements in Guatemala : drug cartels that deal in large-scale exportation and street gangs that sell drugs at the retail level and are involved in other crimes , such as robbery and extortion . In some cases , they work together . When those criminals get arrested , they continue their activities on the inside . `` The prisons , in general , are centers of corruption , '' Carrera said . `` From inside prison , they direct kidnappings , extortion , drug trafficking . '' Monday 's attacks on the prison officials resulted from efforts to weed out corruption in the nation 's prisons , Carrera said . Officials have been clamping down on what goods inmates can receive and the use of cell phones within prison walls . They also are transferring some top-level criminals to high-security prisons . `` What happened is a reaction from gangs who want control of the prisons , '' Carrera said . `` They 're trying to show strength through force . To generate fear . '' Interior Minister Raul Velasquez was quoted in several newspapers Tuesday as saying the attacks were in retaliation for the recent transfer of several gang leaders to high-security prisons . Two arrests have been made in Monday 's shootings and the investigation continues , said Rudy Esquivel , spokesman for the Guatemalan prison system . `` This was a very structured job ; very well-defined , '' Esquivel said from Guatemala City , the nation 's capital . Killed were a prison assistant director , a warden and two guards . One guard and a shooting suspect were wounded , as were three citizens . One of the wounded was a woman in the eighth month of pregnancy , news accounts said . According to published reports in the Prensa Libre , La Hora , El Periodico de Guatemala and Siglo 21 newspapers , this is what happened : . The first attack occurred around 7 a.m. Monday in Guatemala City when two gunmen on a motorcycle fired an AK-47 assault rifle at three guards who were transporting a prisoner . One of the guards was killed and another wounded . A national civil police unit driving in front of the prison detail gave chase and captured the suspects , one of whom suffered a serious leg injury . The second attack happened 10 minutes later , when the warden at the prison in the city of Guastatoya , in central Guatemala , was gunned down while he ate in front of the Hospital General San Juan de Dios . The warden , Felix Gabriel Garcia Reyes , was at the hospital to pick up the body of a prisoner who had died after surgery . Two men and a pregnant 19-year-old woman were wounded in the attack . Witnesses told police four men in a green vehicle fired and fled . Authorities found an abandoned Mitsubishi nearby that matched the description . Inside , they found a 9 mm pistol and ammunition for other weapons . The third attack occurred around noon on the Inter-American Highway near the city of Chimaltenango , where Javier Bac Tzul , 40 , was the prison 's assistant director . He and his 31-year-old driver were killed as they returned to the prison after a trip to Guatemala City . Authorities said they found AK-47 shells at the scene . Chimaltenango Gov . Hector Lopez said a prison director and two assistant directors already have been killed in the state , Prensa Libre reported . Analyst Berkman sees little hope . `` It 's a lose-lose situation , no matter how you look at it , '' she said .
One killed in three orchestrated attacks , local media reported . Analysts blame attacks on flow of drugs through country . Drugs on route from Mexico to Colombia , two biggest sources of drugs in country . They also blame the government they say is incompetent and corrupt .