ABSTRACT
The Guatemalan armed forces maintain a system of civil patrols, which, according to Chief of Army Public Relations, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Letona, include some 800,000 men required to provide unpaid service to the army amounting to as much as 25% of their time. The civil patrol system, which is in place in rural areas of the country, is primarily an Army tool to control the lives of the local populace, who are largely indigenous. Food-for-Work has a long and controversial history in Guatemala. Since 1982, when then-President Jose Efrain Rios Montt founded the “Beans and Guns” program, food distribution by the Army has been “the foundation of pacification in Guatemala.” Guatemalan law provides that all work must be remunerated in legal tender, although agricultural laborers can choose to receive up to 30% of wages in food products. Food-for-Work assistance is distributed to workers who undertake municipal service employment, such as cleaning the public markets.
