Transurbano SIGA Prepaid Bus System

Transurbano launched on 3 July 2010 as a private consortium's replacement for Guatemala City's aging camionetas: Brazilian-built buses with GPS tracking, on-board cameras and an RFID prepaid card, whose fare system was financed by a Q270 million (≈US$35 million) state transfer to the bus owners' association under a 2009 governmental agreement. That transfer made it Guatemala's best-known transit corruption case — CICIG and prosecutors had ex-president Álvaro Colom and ten of his ministers arrested in February 2018, after the comptroller had found fare equipment worth Q102.5 million, including hundreds of card readers, sitting unused in storage in 2016. Only 445 of some 3,150 planned buses ever arrived, and by 2023 the SIGA card had quietly been dropped on many routes in favour of cash before the operator agreed to adopt the municipality's Tarjeta Ciudadana. The criminal case then collapsed on its own terms: Colom died under house arrest in early 2023, a judge closed proceedings against nine ex-ministers in December 2024 citing a defective indictment, and in June 2025 dismissed the case against the association's ex-vice-president because fewer than 10 of 1,400 investigative items even referenced him.