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Economy

Guatemala's Poorest Cross Border For Hard Labor In Mexican State Of Chiapas

Workers in a field in Chiapas
Workers in a field in Chiapas
Frédéric Saliba

TAPACHULA - “I've come here to earn money, and then I'll go back home...” Josefina Perez talks as she cuts coffee trees with a machete on the 617-acre Irlanda farm perched on the Tacana volcano in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Like this 40-year-old seasonal worker, more than 100,000 Guatemalans cross the border each year to work in the fields of this rugged stretch of southern Mexico, the 12th coffee producer in the world. Hailed back home as an eldorado for these poor peasants? Not so sure once they get here.

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On the slopes of the Tacana volcano - Photo: Eduardo Robles Pacheco

At meeting points, in the seven bordering Guatemalan departments, Mexican recruiters take some 300 workers a day on average. The numbers rise for the harvest season between October and February, then decreases for the cutting of coffee trees. With the promises of temporary jobs, seasonal workers seek a frontier worker visa. But many others arrive in Mexico illegally, braving risks of theft and abduction.

With so many natives of Chiapas emigrating to the United States, planters turn towards this cheap work force available in Guatemala. The laborers, most of them Maya Indians, are paid around 80 pesos (5 euros) per day -- far more than the meager earnings from corn in their tiny plots back home.

Employers provide food and shelter in the farms, often in run-down dormitories. Beyond exhausting workdays in the muggy Chiapas heat, there are also abuses of some producers: underfeeding, deplorable hygienic conditions, non-payment of wages. “Nearly feudal” conditions were denounced in October by the National Union of Peasant Organizations.

There are also child laborers, accompanying their parents along this miserable journey, who eventually are put to work.

Cartels and fungus

In order to right the wrong, the Mexican Ministry of Social Development launched a program designed to improve the social conditions of seasonal workers. In 2012, 22 dormitories, 10 toilets, and 10 cafeterias have thus been built on some 15 different farms. Still, the region includes 800 big coffee plantations, and 170,000 small producers.

[rebelmouse-image 27086691 alt="""" original_size="500x375" expand=1]

Chiapas coffee beans - Photo: inkdmn

But there is a new threat to both boss and worker alike. Since October, coffee rust, a fungus from Central America, has been spreading its orange dust on to the leaves of Chiapas arabica coffee bushes. The next harvest is sure to suffer.

“It's insufficient in the face of the social crisis awaiting seasonal workers and small producers, already poor enough,” worries Senor Trampe, president of Tacana's Union of Coffee Producers.

And the worst fear of all is of a new surge of the violence hitting the region, which is home to drug cartels. On February 16, in Tapachula, a Guatemalan seasonal worker was shot dead on the farm where he worked. Since December, 54 crimes were have been tallied in this formerly peaceful frontier town.

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eyes on the U.S.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

The U.S. legal system cannot simply run its course in a vacuum. Presidential politics, and democracy itself, are at stake in the coming weeks and months.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

File photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump in Clyde, Ohio, in 2020.

Emma Shortis*

-Analysis-

Events often seem inevitable in hindsight. The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump on criminal charges has been a possibility since the start of his presidency – arguably, since close to the beginning of his career in New York real estate.

But until now, the potential consequences of such a cataclysmic development in American politics have been purely theoretical.

Today, after much build-up in the media, The New York Times reported that a Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Trump and the Manhattan district attorney will now likely attempt to negotiate Trump’s surrender.

The indictment stems from a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office into “hush money” payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels (through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen), and whether they contravened electoral laws.

Trump also faces a swathe of other criminal investigations and civil suits, some of which may also result in state or federal charges. As he pursues another run for the presidency, Trump could simultaneously be dealing with multiple criminal cases and all the court appearances and frenzied media attention that will come with that.

These investigations and possible charges won’t prevent Trump from running or even serving as president again (though, as with everything in the U.S. legal system, it’s complicated).

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