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Surely the ancient gods of Latin America would view with favor the political unrest today with its accompanying violence.
Columbia, beset by drug lords and rebels, Peru, the bloody "Shining Path," Venezula with its gathering forces of dissension. In particular, we note Guatemala with its 33-year civil war.
The economic base has long vested upon the exportation of two major crops - - coffee and bananas. Each require extensive
land areas, and each are produced by corporations or owners of properties very similar in practice to the "hacendados" of years past. The .Indians of Guatemala have been subjected to harsh treatment for many years, and many have been killed by
take-over by the large land holders. The Mayan* of the Peten area of Guatemala appear to have received special attention when judged by the rights of people to wrest, in peace, a livelihood from a land of mountains and rainforests. At best, their life would be one of extreme poverty by today's standards, but many have crossed into Chipas State of Mexico as a means of survival.
In our unsupported opinion, the Guatemala rebel was an important factor in the recent appearance of well-armed guerrillas in Chiapas. Calling themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (using the name of a 1910 revelutionary hero), the rebels sought land for the Indians, roads, potable water and improved educational opportunities - - the latter dealt wi
government soldiers when defending their poor farms from
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of the Spanish language by many of the natives.