Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

engaged in agricultural output is an undernumerated figure (Calvert, 1985, 129). During the
1970s the agricultural sectors with the greatest earnings were coffee, cotton, sugar, cardamom,
bananas and beef (Calvert, 1985, 129; Jonas, 1991, 76). The amount of land devoted to growing
coffee and bananas had increased between the 1950s and late 1970s by 40% and 72%
respectively. The land devoted to cotton and sugar showed much more significant growth from
the 1950s to the 1970s; 95% and 63% respectively. Bananas were the only agricultural export to
decline in yield while increasing in total production. The amount of beef available for domestic
consumption fell as Guatemala increased the cultivation of cattle for export; rates dropped from
50% to 37% between 1960 and 1974 (Dunkerly, 1988, 194). The land used for cattle grazing was
not appropriated from the more fertile lands used by coffee, cotton or banana plantations. Rather,
it came from the less fertile subsistence farming land in the Zacapa, Matagalpa, and Franja
regions in Guatemala. The state frequently engaged in the removal of subsistence farmers from
their land in order to grant it to foreign corporations, military personnel or political allies
“provoked popular discontent to a degree equal to if not greater than that in Nicaragua”
(Dunkerly, 1988, 466). The recipients of land in Zacapa and the Franja were frequently civilian
and military partnerships. Four individuals who had served in the Laugerud and Lucas
administrations (1976-1978) owned 285,000 hectares in the Franja (Dunkerly, 1988, 467).
Agriculture and the cultivation of cattle remained the dominant export sectors; although, the
timber and textile industries experienced modest growth over the same period. The unregulated
export of timber continued until the earthquake in 1976, at which point in time timber exports
were prohibited.
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