March 13, 2007 in Nation/World

In Guatemala, Bush discusses free trade

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Associated Press photo

President Bush greets Guatemalans on Monday at an agricultural packing station.
(Full-size photo)

GUATEMALA CITY – President Bush, in the poorest of the five Latin American nations he’s visiting, on Monday extolled the benefits of free trade and singled out a U.S.-backed farm cooperative that sells lettuce and carrots to Wal-Mart.

But he didn’t offer what many Guatemalans said they wanted to hear – a pledge that the Bush administration would find a way to welcome to the United States Guatemalan workers whose U.S. earnings are a major source of income here.

“A lot of our children are being thrown out of the United States, and people here depend on them for survival,” said Josefina Herrera, 76, who has family in Los Angeles.

“Many people here can’t work because there are no jobs. Bush should give those in the United States a chance to stay and work so they can have a better life.”

“Too many Guatemalan children (in the United States) are being left without parents because they are deported,” said Anthony Tomas, 23, who has family in Homestead, Fla. “It’s unjust. They don’t go to there to steal or kill. They simply want to work. They should have that opportunity.”

Bush’s one-day visit to Guatemala – he flew on to Mexico for the last stop of a tour that has taken him to Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia – underscored the widely varying views on how best to help this Central American country overcome a legacy of poverty and conflict.

The list of needs for Guatemala is long: help with security to combat gang violence, organized crime and drug trafficking; support for education and health; financial assistance for agricultural programs and infrastructure needs.

But Bush came with a different agenda: showing that the free trade agreement does work and countering the widespread perception that Washington has neglected Latin America since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“You represent people who dream, people who work hard, and people who make wonderful products,” Bush told indigenous farmers at the Labradores Mayas cooperative. “Free trade is important for a lot of people. … It creates jobs in America just like it creates jobs here.”

Each week the cooperative, comprising 66 families, sends 30,000 heads of lettuce and 2,000 pounds of carrots and other crops to Wal-Mart’s Central American stores, giving it an average income of about $100,000 a month. Seven of 10 residents in the cooperative’s area live on less than $2 a day, much like most of the rest of the nation.

Unlike at Bush’s previous stops, hundreds of friendly bystanders waved and held small American flags as his 30-car caravan traveled along narrow roads that wound through several villages. Protests were relatively small and largely peaceful, including graffiti calling Bush an assassin.

Several posters held by protesters urged Bush to leave and praised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bush’s regional nemesis, who’s been undertaking a tour of his own. After spending Sunday in Nicaragua, Chavez was in Jamaica and Haiti on Monday, touting preferential oil contracts and generous aid packages.

Many protesters complained that the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement has done little to raise Guatemala out of its poverty.

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