Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

industrialize the economy were not attempts to create a middle class or to redistribute wealth
from the elite classes to the masses at the bottom. Agricultural diversification, modernization and
industrialization had little negative impact on the elite classes, yet the peasant classes were
heavily impacted by these efforts. The complete lack of political representation for the mass
majority of Guatemalans was a critical barrier to resolving or alleviating the issues prolonging
and exacerbating suffering in Guatemala.
The rising and persistent unemployment in Guatemala had several manmade causes and
one natural cause. The first cause was the advance in agricultural mechanization during the
1970s; the need for workers in certain sectors, harvesting, packing, bottling, and jarring
decreased. The second cause for unemployment was a worldwide recession decreasing the
demand for agricultural exports from the developing world. Decreased demand led to a decline in
the prices of agricultural commodities. Guatemalan landowners planted less of particular crop(s)
when their yields on the international market dropped. At the same time, land speculators drove
up the price of land after the discovery of oil in Guatemala; large plantation owners would sell
land to speculators for a profit instead of using the land to cultivate crops. A third cause for rising
unemployment was a decrease in available credit to domestic businesses. As commodity prices
fell domestic producers were unable to secure financing to continue planting year after year when
the prices for the harvested crops did not provide sufficient profit. Seasonal and full time workers
were laid off or not hired. The fourth cause for rising unemployment was due to the rise in
exports that required less manpower than the typical agricultural commodities, such as coffee and
cotton. Raising livestock and mining were less manpower intensive than industries involving the
cultivation of agricultural crops in the 1970s and 1980s. The cultivation of coffee was one of the
few agricultural industries where hiring was not harmed by mechanization, the hillside harvest of
coffee in the highlands was almost impossible to mechanize. As a result, employment on the
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