Agricultural landscape, Guatemala

Guatemala City, the nation’s capital, stands at an altitude of 4,920 feet (1,500 m) in a volcanic mountainous zone, and the valleys that surround it are covered with fertile lava. Coffee (which represents 50% of the nation’s exports and of which Guatemala is ranked 7 in world production, and corn (the chief food staple) are the main cash crops. Half of the active population works in agriculture, the country’s chief economic resource. The vast majority of farmers (90%) each own less than 17 acres (7 hectares) of land. Severely affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, then by several intense droughts and by the dramatic collapse in the price of coffe, Guatemala suffered the reduction of the foreign investments and brought distress and famine to farmers and plantation workers : 50,000 plantations closed. This series of calamities was not due to fate alone; economic policy of the 1990s, perpetuating social inequities and opposing democracy, also played its part.