BS: Guatemala

Subject: BS: Guatemala
From: Ed T
Date: 15 May 14 - 07:29 PM

Could Guatemala slip backward in time?


Slow change in Guatemala 

Subject: RE: BS: Guatemala
From: Bill D
Date: 16 May 14 - 12:26 PM

My browser won't open NYT pages. Wants me to 'log in'. What's the main point?

Subject: RE: BS: Guatemala
From: Bill D
Date: 16 May 14 - 12:35 PM

Never mind... another browser did. Seems to be a 'cookie' issue.

The thread needs a more interesting title... like 'Guatemala & human rights'

Then a summary: 'Guatemala's ruling classes use various means to prevent other classes from exercising rights.'

Subject: RE: BS: Guatemala
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 May 14 - 12:47 PM

Easily. Or, should I say that it never really advanced.

I became interested when I was staying with a coffee planter in Chiapas whose lands were adjacent to the Guatemalan border. His beans were picked by Guatemalan peasants who came on a trail across the mountains to the coffee plantation area.
I visited a peasant village with "escort" and heard some of their problems.

Everywhere, soldiers were present, their purpose to keep the peasants, mostly Indian-Mayan etc., under control. The land owners I met when I was orchid-hunting were well-educated, some from American-UK schools, but they regarded the peasants as a class whose sole purpose was to cater to their needs.