Land
Redistribution in Guatemala:
Necessary
Steps Toward the Elimination of Poverty of Indigenous Peoples
EDGE Final Paper
Winter
Quarter 2003
Nicole Jordan
Lauren McCormick
Figure 1
- Temples at Tikal
"The imagination reels. There are reliefs, pyramids, temples in the
extinguished city. The damp murmur of the arroyos, voices, crepitations of the
intertangling vines, the sound of flapping wings, trickle into the immense sea
of silence. Everything palpitates, breathes, exhausting itself in green above
the vast roof of Peten."
Nobel Laureate Miguel Ángel
Asturias, The Mirror of Lida Sal: Tales Based on Mayan Myths & Guatemalan
Legends.
The ancient city of Tikal lies in the northwest
corner of Guatemala. The largest known
Mayan city, Tikal was inexplicably abandoned thousands of years ago and only
recently rediscovered by archaeologists and subsequently, tourists. Tikal is an oasis of pyramids in the midst
of thick jungle, alive with the cries of howler monkeys, the thick, wet smell
of flora, and the almost audible drumbeat of an ancient civilization determined
to survive. It is here in Tikal that my
odyssey into the mores of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica begins and
ends.
I traveled to Guatemala over Spring Break 2001 with
an organization called Agros. Agros is
a humanitarian organization whose stated purpose is to break the cycle of
poverty in Central America through land ownership. Agros operates through the establishment of small villages. They purchase plots of land and spend a year
screening impoverished families. Ten to
fifteen families are then selected and put through a three-year training
program which teaches them basic farming and business skills. The villagers move onto their land, where
they elect a local government, and decide how to distribute the land amongst
themselves. They also plan and, as a
community, begin a small business which sells crafts and crops produced by the
village workers. Over time the
villagers make money and slowly purchase back the land from Agros. At the end of the process, the villagers are
landowners.
During the time that the village infrastructure is
being constructed, Agros sends in short-term teams to help with various
construction projects. My team was
selected to work in a village in the center of the Ixil Triangle, a region of
Guatemala greatly affected by the civil war.
Nearly every native person I spoke with during my time there had lost a
loved one during the civil war. Rather
than have us travel directly to the village, Agros wanted us to develop an
understanding for the people with which we were working and hence had us visit
the city of Tikal, the birthplace of the Mayans in Guatemala.
The Mayans meticulously constructed Tikal over a
period of nearly 500 years beginning in 600 B.C. An ancient clay map discovered in Tikal foretells the completed
city, including buildings and temples that would not be built for another 300
years. The Mayans are a patient and
faithful people, remaining scrupulously true to the vision of Tikal even after
the city planner’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren had died.[1]
As I toured the ancient ruins, towering,
white-barked Ceiba trees shaded most of the pathways. These monstrous trees have very little natural vegetation;
however, their wide limbs provide a framework off of which an ecosystem of
orchids, ferns, and cacti survive.[2] In many ways, these trees represent the
Mayan people themselves; they are the stout backbone of Guatemala that has
survived invasion, repression, and war while allowing other artistic elements
of the society to survive.
In the third world, “land is an essential productive
asset and . . . is important for household welfare, aggregate economic growth,
and sustainable reduction of poverty.”[3] Traditionally the top echelons of a society
control the vast majority of a country’s land, and therefore the welfare of its
people. Poor countries such as
Guatemala are especially prone to the manipulation of large, profit-driven
corporations who subvert the law with bribes and sustain the impoverishment of
the masses. In these circumstances,
land is power. Land must be returned to
the native people of Guatemala so that they can begin to rebuild their identity
as an ethnicity and become economically independent. This redistribution of land will be accomplished through the
creation of a national Land Registry and farm workers cooperatives. These cooperatives will be responsible for
the harvesting, processing, distribution, and marketing of agricultural
goods.
The Mayan people were first displaces from their land
during the years 1523-24, when Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado warred with,
and eventually defeated the native Mayan people, establishing Guatemala as a
Spanish colony. Guatemala endured 300
years of Spanish rule before gaining their independence in the late nineteenth
century. In 1944 Juan Jose Arevalo rose to power, signaling the
start of a period in Guatemalan history called the “Ten Years of Spring.” Arevalo implemented many social reforms,
including a land redistribution effort, which sought to put land back into the
hands of peasants. Guatemala’s next
president, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, furthered these reforms and began to institute
education and public healthcare programs.[4]
Meanwhile in the United States,
Lorenzo Baker, who had arrived in New Jersey in 1870 with 160 bunches of
bananas, decided to merge his Boston Fruit Company with three other banana
importers, creating the United Fruit Company (UFC) at the turn of the twentieth
century.[5] Throughout the early twentieth century, the
UFC continued to expand rapidly. Guatemala’s lowland Pacific
strip, with its tropical climate and heavy summer rains is an ideal region for
banana plantations and its land was rapidly bought by the UFC.[6] In
1932, the United Fruit Company owned nearly 60% of all bananas exported from
Central and South America. The
company’s land holdings were so extensive that it earned the name “El Pulpo,”
or The Octopus.[7]
In 1954 the United Fruit Company
denounced President Guzman in the United States as a communist after he
attempted to seize some of the UFC’s fallow acreage in one of his land reform
programs. The United Fruit Company
provided ships to carry CIA-backed troops to Guatemala who overthrew Guzman and
installed a military dictatorship under the rule of Carlos Castillo.[8],[9]
The overthrow plunged Guatemala into a ferocious and deadly civil war, which
lasted 36 years. In 1996 after a peace
accord was signed, a UN investigation revealed that over 200,000 murders had
been committed during the war, 93% by military forces who oversaw 626
documented massacres in Mayan villages.[10] One vocal witness to these horrors is
Rigoberta Menchú, the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.
“My personal experience is the reality of a whole
people.”[11] Such begins the memoirs of Rigoberta Menchú,
a Quiché Indian woman from Guatemala.
The introduction to her autobiography, I Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian
Woman in Guatemala, describes her as a fortunate observer: “She has survived the genocide that
destroyed her family and community and is stubbornly determined to break the
silence and to confront the systematic extermination of her people.”[12] The Guatemalan army killed her father,
mother and brother during the civil war; and she has experienced the
exploitation and injustice that have plagued the native people of Guatemala
over the last 500 years.
Menchú was born to a family of peasant workers. As a teenager she became interested in
women’s rights as well as the well-being of farm workers. Along with her father she joined the Committee
of the Peasant Union (CUC) in 1979. As
tensions between the indigenous population and those of European descent
increased in the 1980s, Menchú’s political involvement and interests
shifted. In 1981 she joined the 31st
of January Popular Front, which was named in order to commemorate the date on
which a group of Quiché Indians were massacred as they occupied the Spanish
Embassy in Guatemala. The purpose of
this organization was to fight for the recognition and rightful share of power
of indigenous peoples in Guatemala.
This is a cause for which Menchú continues to fight.[13] This same year, because of her increasing
political involvement, Menchú was forced into exile in Mexico.
Rigoberta Menchú’s work has brought worldwide
attention to the struggles of indigenous people in Guatemala. The organization that she heads, the Rigoberta
Menchú Foundation, “strives to galvanize the majority indigenous Mayan
population in their fight for civil and human rights.”[14] Despite the efforts of groups such as
Menchú’s, Guatemala is still struggling to overcome the ravages of war.
The population of the country today
stands at 12.6 million, an estimated 45 to 60% of which come from 22 Mayan
ethno- linguistic groups. Each group
speaks its own native language and approximately 40% of all Guatemalan children
enter school with no knowledge of Spanish.[15] Although the war greatly damaged the
country, Guatemala has the largest economy in Central America. Exports account for about 20% of GDP, 5% of
which is bananas.[16],[17]
Although foreign investment has been encouraged, it has been limited due to the
lack of a domestic land market.
Figure 2
- Map of Present-day Guatemala
The United Fruit Company, which changed its name in
1970 to United Brands and again to Chiquita Brands International, Inc. in 1990,
still has extensive land holdings in Guatemala[18],[19] The Del Monte Company also
owns quite a bit of this much-desired land, but its holdings are obfuscated
because the land is technically owned by a dozen, separately titled
subsidiaries.[20] Even with the prosperity relative to their
neighbors, nearly 80% of Guatemalans lives in poverty. Less than three percent of the citizens own
more than 70% of the arable land.[21]
The economic and land ownership disparities of the
indigenous Guatemalan population parallels that of the Chiapas Indians in
Southern Mexico. As in Guatemala, the
results of Spanish colonization in Southern Mexico were the systematic
stripping of indigenous lands, racism and poverty. On January 1, 1994, the inaugural day of the North Atlantic Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a guerrilla group known as the Zapatistas took hold of
San Cristobal and five other towns in Chiapas.
For this mostly indigenous guerrilla group, and the rest of the native
population, NAFTA was merely a form of “corporate colonialism.”[22] NAFTA would create for them a living
standard below the already appalling living conditions that existed.
NAFTA reduces the barriers to trade by eliminating
tariffs and import quotas on products such as agricultural goods. In effect, foreign companies have the
comparable advantage over indigenous farm workers, as they are able to produce
goods at a lower cost. Additionally,
foreign companies have an incentive to relocate to Mexico, where they can hire
cheap labor and offer little or no health protection to their workers. Despite the fact that NAFTA opens the North
American market, it is a detriment to the poor farm workers.
As in Guatemala, foreign investment is abundant in
Chiapas, Mexico. Beginning in 1994 and
over a span of 5 years, foreign and Mexican businesses like Axa Yashaki,
Herdez, Produce and Foundation, the Chiapas Funds and Propalma, had invested a
total of 40 million dollars in the region.
The ecotourism industry has also flourished in the area. Coffee production in Chiapas accounts for
36% of the coffee produced in Mexico.
In fact, the coffee production in Soconusco alone is equivalent to that
produced by the Dominican Republic.[23] Despite the influx of revenue into the
region, the state of Chiapas is the second poorest in all of Mexico.[24] The literacy rate in the rest of Mexico is
87%, while in Chiapas it is a mere 69%; seventy nine percent of households in
Mexico have running water, while this number stands at 58% in Chiapas; and
finally, eighty eight percent of Mexican households have access to electricity
compared to 67% of households in Chiapas.
The organization, Food First, offers suggestions to
empower the indigenous population of Chiapas that greatly parallel our proposal
for the banana-growing Pacific region of Guatemala. First, they recognize that a new land ownership program and the
proper macroeconomic climate are key to improving the lives of the indigenous
population. Specifically, they assert
that “Mayan communities must be given communal land holdings… with guarantees
of secure tenure.”[25] Second, they recognize the need for fair
credit, and reasonable crop prices that allow the farmers to maintain their livelihood.[26] Lastly, they recognize the need to eliminate
corruption in local governments in order to ensure the viability of such Mayan
cooperatives. The native population of
Guatemala is ready for such a plan.
Figure 3 - A Typical Mayan
Village in Guatemala
Recently unrest has been
welling in Guatemala in support of land redistribution. In August of 2002 over 30,000 peasants went
on strike, blocking roads and occupying large farms. The strike was organized by the National Coordinator of Campesino
Organizations (CNOC), and called on President Alfonso Portillo to develop
concrete plans to rectify the gross unequal distribution of land.[27] The growing disillusionment with the status
quo in Guatemala demands that an explicit policy be developed and implemented.
The cornerstone of any land policy
is secure property rights. In a country
where land has been forcibly taken for hundreds of years (most recently during
the civil war) ownership of titled land is a measure of worth. Evidence indicates that farmers are both
willing to relocate over large distances to receive a piece of titled land, and
are willing to pay
an average of five times more than they would for untitled land. Individual as well as communal tenure
agreements will increase the supply of formal credit—land is ideal for
collateral—and encourage long-term investment.[28],[29]
With
secure property rights must also come the creation and maintenance of a
national Land Registry and Cadastre.
The Land Registry would record the ownership of all land in Guatemala,
and be accessible at the national and regional levels. This database will be used to assure the
land titles are upheld, provide a means for land use planning, and reduce
transaction costs of individuals purchasing land (as they would not have to
travel to Guatemala City to purchase land.)[30],[31]
A trial project by the
World Bank in Guatemala’s Petén region estimates the cost of rural land
regularization at about $18 per hectare.
The estimated cost of the project in Petén only is $7.1 million, with an expectation to break even within 10
years.[32] Given that Petén accounts for about 10% of the land in Guatemala,
the total cost of the property rights aspect of the program is expected to be
less than $70 million.
Another major benefit to
the plan is the creation of land markets.
According to the rule of “inverse farm size productivity relationship,”
farms are more efficient for many types of agricultural endeavors the smaller
they are. Small, privately owned farms
provide a greater incentive to farmers to optimize both efficiency and
quality. As these farmers begin to
prosper beyond basic sustenance, they will be able to bring their product to
market. The Puebla-Panama Plan could
help the farm workers cooperatives gain access to markets.
The goal of the
Puebla-Panama Plan is to establish trade markets from Mexico down through
Central America. Suitable
infrastructure to facilitate trade in these regions is one of the main focuses
of the plan. For this reason $3.4
billion dollars has been earmarked to repair stretches of highway and railroad,
as well as electricity grids. The other
$600 million dollars is allocated to realize the other seven goals of the
Puebla-Panama Plan: “sustainable
development, human development and education, prevention and mitigation of
disasters, tourism, facilitation of commercial exchange, connecting the energy
grids and integrating the telecommunications systems.”[33] As a result of the Puebla-Panama Plan, the
farm workers’ cooperatives will be able to establish themselves in markets in
major cities throughout Mexico and Central America.
In addition to the Puebla-Panama Plan, the Free Trade
Area of the Americas is expected to begin negotiations this year. The goal of these negotiations is to
establish free trade between the United States and the five Central American
countries. U.S Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick has stated that if the Free Trade Area of the Americas does not
materialize, the United States “will go forward with those who are interested.”[34]
This will help the farm workers cooperatives further integrate into the world’s
markets, as they will gain access to the largest economy in North America. In the United States, the cooperatives could
gain access to higher prices by gaining the patronage of the Latino community
and non-traditional sellers like Whole Foods and Trader Joes.
The Puebla-Panama
Plan and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, however, do have their opponents
who fear that labor rights violations and environmental abuses will
abound. However, there are ways of
enforcing fair labor practices for the farm workers in these cooperatives. The dockworkers’ union is one such way. Dockworkers could refuse to accept any
shipment of goods that does not meet a fair labor practice standard. As a result, the cooperatives will only
remain viable as long as the farm workers have healthful working conditions and
a livable salary. Advocacy groups such
as the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation could also put pressure on local governments
to ensure that there are no labor rights violations in farm workers’
cooperatives.
The creation of land
markets also has potential negative impacts.
The main drawback to the commoditization of land is that it favors those
who already have equity. Thus the main
cost of the plan would be grants given to peasants or groups of peasants so
that they could begin to acquire land.
The cooperatives can seek financial support from organizations such as
the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). This government institution’s aim is “the
stable and autonomous development of the economies and societies of countries
in the world and closer and stronger economic ties between Japan and the rest
of the world.”[35] The cooperative needs to remain autonomous
in order to ensure that the workers will directly benefit from its
operation. In order for this to happen,
the cooperatives must be able to produce, process, distribute and market their
own goods. In other words, the
cooperative will need acres of land, a factory in which to process their goods,
and solid infrastructure with which to distribute and market their
products. Training and health care are
also necessary components of this venture if it is to succeed and provide the
peasants with sustained prosperity.
JBIC could provide
the cooperatives with an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan through
their Overseas Economic Cooperation Operations.[36] This financial assistance will provide the
cooperatives with the money the need to have the proper infrastructure. This will involve buying land, the necessary
equipment to harvest and distribute the product, training and health care
facilities. This process is not one of
high technology. In the case of the
banana industry, many indigenous people have harvested and processed bananas
all of their lives. Often, programs
aimed at helping the poor peasants only affect one aspect of their lives. For instance, appropriate technologies such
as an improved chimney protect the eyesight of families. However, the peasants are kept poor, as
these programs do not make the peasants economically independent.
Unlike these narrow
programs, redistributing land to peasants and creating a cooperative among the
peasants is a powerful way of increasing and sustaining their financial
well-being. The establishment of a
national Land Registry, creation of secure property rights, and grants of money
for poor farmers are necessary steps toward the elimination of poverty in
Guatemala. Placing the responsibilities
of harvesting, processing, distributing and marketing in the hands of peasants
will simultaneously break their cycle of hardship and strengthen their
culture. A cultivated sense of
self-dependence will give them a stronger sense of pride and make them less
vulnerable to the whims of big corporations.
As I watched the sun set
over the ancient city of Tikal, I was struck by the continuity of the legacy of
the Mayan people. Like the Ceiba tree
who offers its wide branches as the home for other flora to thrive, the Mayan people
have had a constant, constructive influence in the country of Guatemala. They are strong and industrious, and if
given the chance to be landowners, they could prosper, raise themselves out of
poverty, and begin successful businesses.
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