Nost: I spent a lot of time (3+ yrs) in Central America, specifically Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. An interesting connection point exists between Guatemala and Israel, in that Guatemala is crawling with ex-Mossad types and ex-IDF.
The Guatemalan Army uses Galil rifles (your aforementioned excellent Israeli weapon), and internal security is provided by ex-Mossad, including a real “Big Brother” system at the airport in Guat City. As bad as Salvador was during the Wild West days of the ’80s, Guatemala was even worse (we called it “The Land of Very Bad Things”). And the Israelis were right in the thick of it. The handful of ex-Mossad guys I knew were really twitchy (think Doberman) and armed to the frickin’ teeth.
Of course, the nut job of all nut jobs was General Rios Montt in Guatemala. You want some interesting bathroom reading, check into that guy. Wow.