The Peace Corps in Guatemala

The Kennedy Administration created the Peace Corps based on the same concept as the Alliance for Progress--it was to be an alternative to political change to appease the lower classes of Third World countries. The personal ethics of a Peach Corps volunteer, however, are not always identical to those of the politicians who created it. As an individual, the volunteer can make an effective contribution to social change.

A major criticism directed against the Peace Corps is that the volunteer is an imported leader to the local community who undermines local initiative and self-respect. There are two types of development programs, however. A program that provides free food, medical care or technical help merely puts a bandage on social ills without attempting to make a fundamental change in the social inequality underlying them, but a program based on local organizations can give leaders the tools to work with that do not destroy, but boost local initiative.

The co-operatives of Guatemala provide examples of these two types of programs. Two cooperative federations, both funded by the Agency for International Development (AID) and using Peace Corps volunteers, are now working to improve the economic position of the small farmer.

FECOAR, the Guatemalan agricultural federation, is governed from the top. Gringo and Guatemalan developers establish the general policy that the Ladino (non-Indian mestizo) extensionists and managers apply to the regional cooperatives. Even though the co-ops are for the benefit of the Indian farmer, he plays almost no part in the decision making.

The Peace Corps, which fits into the system directly under the extensionists, has been putting pressure on the top level to train the farmers in accounting and agronomy so that they can assume an increasing amount of power. Although their pressure has begun to have incremental effects, it appears doubtful that the cooperatives will ever be managed by the farmers themselves.

FENACOAC, the savings-and-loan tederation, has a more equal balance of power since the local farmers and storekeepers make the decisions for their own cooperatives. Through a rotating board of directors, local leaders share the responsibilities of credit and management decisions. They emphasize the fact that cooperatives are an effort for all people, apart from religious differences, though in practice, coops often divide according to the Ladino - Indian split.

The FENACOAC federation staffers, however, have a paternalistic attitude toward local cooperatives; for instance, they make decisions which affect the co-op without consulting them. Several months ago, a Peace Corps volunteer noticed that cooperatives had many similar complaints against the federation and organized a meeting of co-op leaders in the area to exchange ideas. He emphasized to the federation manager that local leaders had met because of an interest in improving the federation, not to withdraw support.

FENACOAC shortly afterward introduced a system of periodic forums between federation directors and local leaders to discuss complaints. The federation has already begun to make changes in its decisions based on the inputs from these forums.

As FENACOAC is growing, the Guatemalan government is beginning to give the organization more recognition. The Guatemalan vice president and minister of finance were present at the last FENACOAC general assembly, while the president sent his regrets. In September 1973, the government publicized a $100,000 gift to FENACOAC, an obvious attempt to solicit votes for the upcoming March elections. The question remains how far the Guatemalan military government will allow the federation to develop in size and in representation before cutting off support.

Peace Corps volunteers in FENACOAC are not leaders but temporary advisers to the local co-ops. Many of them have said that their goal is to train Guatemalans to replace themselves. A volunteer usually aids or trains the managers of four or five cooperatives in managing the accounts, purchasing agricultural inputs, and applying for loans. The Board of Directors remain the co-op's decision-making body.

One volunteer in an apple producing area is now advising a co-op in setting up an apple butter factory and making connections with food-chain distributors. This cooperative will offer higher prices for apples to local farmers than the middlemen--the truckers who buy apples to resell for higher prices in Guatemala City. The co-op assembly decided to take the risk and borrow the money to invest in the factory, on the condition that the volunteer would extend his stay another two years, until the factory is established.

Small farmers constitute 88 per cent of the population of Guatemala, but own only 14 per cent of the land. A subsistence farmer, who cannot grow enough corn for his family on his one or two acres of land or sell it for a reasonable price in the fluctuating market, must migrate to work on the coffee or cotton plantations--called fincas--at harvest time.

The finca wage varies for 50 cents to $1 per day, and many laborers die of malaria and insecticide poisoning. Population growth squeezes the farmers even more as their land is divided between sons each generation.

The introduction of fertilizer and agricultural techniques has been the major factor in the past decade in easing the drastic population growth and poverty. With fertilizer, the farmer can produce two or three times as much corn as he did before on the same plot of land. Cooperatives have expanded because they provide the credit which the farmer needs to buy fertilizer.

The Peace Corps volunteer contributes needed technical aid in agronomy to the local communities. Very few Guatemalan agronomists will work with small farmers. They prefer working for private business with its higher pay and professionalism. The volunteer can actually accomplish more than the agronomist who makes only occasional visits because he lives in the area for at least two years.

The volunteer is effective also because he can remain separated from local prejudices. The Peace Corps show a degree of respect for the Maya highland Indians which the Latin extensionists rarely use. For example, the customary Latin address to the Indian is the form 'vos'--the equivalent of saying 'boy' to a grown man. Volunteers always use the formal 'Usted' address.

The majority of Peace Corps volunteers are not knowledgeable of Guatemalan national-level politics, but they are intelligent. They perceive that the Guatemalan farmer has a very small share of the power and wealth in the country, and they work to increase his share of both. Government officials in Guatemala have often expressed unofficially the idea that Peace Corp workers are spreading Communism in the countryside.

A cooperative volunteer can see that he is helping to better the material standard of living of the poor farmers. Whether he is able to succeed in promoting their power in decision making, depends to a large degree on the type of development program he is working with. The volunteers who have worked with strong local co-ops cannot possibly foretell their future--whether they will stagnate, be overturned by the government, or become the basis for further social change remains to be seen.

Jane Baird spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala.