COMADEP works mainly in small isolated villages situated in the jungle in Guatemala´s northern state of Petén near the border with Mexico. Most farmers here are indigenous people who live in extremely poor conditions. Through agricultural and commercialization projects COMADEP tries to improve the conditions of these farmers who are struggling to survive. But who are these farmers and what do they think themselves of these projects?

A glance into two villages: The village consisting of the so called retornados, (returned refugees) La Esmeralda, and the cooperative Vista Hermosa.

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Vista Hermosa

Vista Hermosa is a village that lies in the municipality of La Libertad. The people here are 'no-retornados´, meaning they didn't flee to Mexico during the conflict. These men and women suffered the effects from the war without leaving their village, which is located at 80 km from Flores, the capital of the state of Petén.

In Vista Hermosa COMADEP is currently conducting two projects together with 30 farmers: a cattle project and a pineapple project. Why are these projects necessary?

¨If we only keep growing maize and brown beans we will continue to eat only tortillas with frijoles for the rest of our lives. Three times a day¨, says Fidel, emphasizing the importance of a change. ¨Because of our poor diet we have no natural resistance and we get all kinds of diseases like anemia, dengue or hepatitis. In this village there are quite some underfed children.¨

Fidel is president of the cooperative in his native village, Vista Hermosa. Besides, Fidel was chosen president of FECAIRAN, a federation to which Vista Hermosa is affiliated, consisting of ten cooperatives working together to commercialize their crops. Fidel is critical and for him only one thing counts: ¨This poverty is killing us. The farmers have to get out of it¨. You can tell he is eager and dedicated to make the change.

With financial and technical support of COMADEP some farmers in Vista Hermosa are now working in two agricultural projects. Fifteen farmers are growing pineapples and another fifteen are taking part in a cattle project.

In September 2003 sixty pregnant cows were bought. The male keefers will be sold and the females will be kept to keep on breeding. Part of the profits will be used to pay back the loans with which the cows were bought. These loans will have to be paid within the next five years. But once these ´debts´ have been paid the capital will return to the same participants to invest in other projects.

The 32 years old Froilan Martinez Ortiz is one of the participants in the project and he has experience in working with cattle: ¨Six years ago I still was growing 28 acres of maize, until I bought two cows. Keeping the female cows to breed, my cattle grew rapidly and now I have 20 cows. I don´t have to work as hard anymore as in the past. I just have to sell a cow once in a while. I hope that with the help of this project I finally will be able to build me a house¨, he says.

Also Fidel has set high expectations for this project: ¨After the first years, when we will have paid back the cows, we will gain about Q. 8000 ($ 1000) a year per family. That is twice the money we earn now. Besides, we hope to start a meat store here in town where our wives can work. If possible we also want to sell milk, cream and cheese. Besides, our own families will have a more balanced diet.¨

Miguel Angel Barios is another participant in the cattle project. He is very poor and his concerns are the most basic needs. ¨To survive I grow maize and brown beans. Due to the low market prices I earn no more than 200 quetzales per six months. Therefore I also work at a big farm 6 days a week. Here I work from 7 in the morning until 16:00, making 30 quetzales ($ 4) a day. I work about 70 hours a week. The work is hard: cutting grass with a machete in the burning sun¨, says Miguel.

But even with his second job at the farm he is still struggling to survive. ¨I have two kids, 11 and 13 years old. Right now they are still in school but I don´t have the money to pay for their study or to buy them clothes. If one of my children gets sick, I don´t have money for medicines and have to borrow some quetzales from one of my friends¨, he explains.

¨If we keep growing maize we are ruined. We don´t have enough money to survive now¨, mentions one of the participants. "If we industrialize the pineapples, blending them and mixing them with milk, we can make 12 quetzales per pineapple. That is six times the market price of raw pineapples! We could sell the juice to stores or to companies¨, says Fidel enthousiastically.

COMADEP accompanied this village composed of five different Maya groups (Kanjobal, Q `echi, Mam, Kakchikel and Quiché) during its process of return and integration into Guatemala. COMADEP has conducted several projects in La Esmeralda among which: soil studies, a cooperative store, honey production and production of soya beans. Currently COMADEP is developing an important cattle project with the farmers.

Francisco Coc Teul (33 years old) is participating in this cattle project. He explains how his daily problems are related to past events which have to do with the armed conflict and that affected him personally.

Stuck into poverty Francisco is struggling for the education of his four children. Most are still in primary school but Francisco doesn't know how he's going to pay for the more expensive secondary school which costs Q. 800,-- ($100,--) a year. "There are just no possibilities. We can only grow maize and beans but we don't earn anything. The costs are higher as the gains", explains Francisco.

Francisco had to walk a long and difficult road
before he could settle in La Esmeralda
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The process was disturbed abruptly because the organized groups were labeled as dangerous communists. The first serious problems of the war began. The president of the cooperative of Francisco's village had to report himself at the military camps. "Later he was found dead. He had been hung from a tree and then been thrown in a river. He was a good man¨, says Francisco.

"I was scared; the army was bombing the village"

Many leaders of churches and villages who were preaching social changes were kidnapped or ¨disappeared¨. The army started persecuting the people. Francisco recalls one event: "I heard shots and big explosions in a nearby village, Santa Maria Dolores. I was scared. The army was bombing the village with plains and helicopters. The guerilla had gathered at the central plaza to talk to the villagers. ¨

In the meantime the guerilla was asking villagers to help fight the army. Francisco recalls: "We were right in the middle of two fires. The only way out was fleeing into the mountains. It was dangerous. The army were chasing the fled people with civil guides that knew the area well.¨

"They killed everyone"

Francisco continues: "In many places the army attacked the groups in the mountains by surprise at night. In another case the army set a trap around a field of maize were the people of the mountains went for their food supplies. It were massacres. They killed everyone: men, women, children and old people.

Francisco lived with approximately 80 families from his village for two years in the mountains. Posts around the camps were continually at stake for the army. "We always had to be ready to run, leaving everything behind. Sometimes we got warned or we heard the army. At that time I didn't think. I just ran. The older people had to go first because they were the slowest. All the people of our village survived. It is a miracle¨, says Francisco.

The route to Mexico was very difficult. The people had to walk for a week through the jungle along the foot of the mountains. "There was no road and we had to walk the whole day without shoes and with ragged clothes. We were living of the fruits we found along the way. Many children got sick. Oh God, Oh God. Forget about it¨, says Francisco sadly.

After two years they had to leave it all behind again. Chiapas wasn't save anymore. The Guatemalan army sometimes crossed the border and wanted to attack the refugee camps. Francisco was moved to the more land inward state Campeche also in Mexico. Here the people, besides growing maize and beans, started working at the farms or went to the big nearby cities to maintain a living. Francisco worked in constructions.

The first years they had to live in the 'galeras' again in poverty. Then they began constructing their houses on the mountain that now is La Esmeralda. According to Francisco there hasn´t changed much since: ¨In the last eight years we didn't manage to get over the economic crisis".

The history of Francisco and the village La Esmeralda is similar to that of all the refugees and of all the villages consisting of the ´retornados´, returned refugees. Now most of these people own their own ground, have access to minimal services like schools and health centers but still lack medicines. The traditional crops, maize and brown beans, aren't profitable. These are merely for the consumption of their own families. Therefore COMADEP makes a strong effort to induce the production of non tradional crops in all the villages that are more profitable. A good example is the production of cattle, pineapples and honey for exportation.

Read about the agricultural technicians