Yesterday Bush appeared in Guatemala, wearing a jacket made from traditional Guatemalan textiles. His photo op was at an agricultural export facility, where cameras recorded the US president loading boxes of lettuce. Perhaps the destination of the lettuce would be the US.
Agricultural export crops such as lettuce pose significant threats to human health and the environment due to the heavy amount of pesticides and fertilizers used to create those perfect veggies. Still, in one of the poorest Central American countries, the agricultural export industry has helped to keep some peasants involved in agriculture in the beautiful Guatemalan highlands. But many more peasants are migrating to textile maquiladoras in the cities, fruit and vegetable processing plants, or they are migrating to the United States, through Mexico.
The Guatemalan president petitioned the US president to stop deporting illegal immigrants. Something like 10% of the Guatemalan population migrates to the US, most illegally. 80% of the population, half of which is indigenous, lives below the poverty line. Remittances to Guatemala from relatives in the US keep many Guatemalans alive, and help build houses, churches, schools. Meanwhile, Bush keeps building that wall and carrying out extensive raids against those immigrants who are really just trying to keep their families alive.
One of Bush’s messages to Guatemala was to grow more sugar cane to make ethanol so we can keep driving our cars. Funny thing is, the sugar cane industry in Guatemala collapsed a decade or so ago due to US protectionism and subsequent loss of the US market. It probably goes without saying that many of those displaced laborers migrated north to the US to look for work.
The US has just negotiated a free trade agreement with Central American countries, including Guatemala. I’d be surprised if the agreement contained much about sugar sector liberalization, as there is still significant protection of the US sugar industry. No matter, we’ll buy the ethanol made from sugar cane – once those defunct plantations can be brought on line again – at least for now.
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