Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2022
Since the late 1980s, peasants throughout Central America have begun to coordinate political and economic strategy. Agriculturalists from the five republics that constituted “la patria grande” of Spanish Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) as well as representatives from Panama and Belize have founded regional organizations that meet to compare experiences with free-market policies, share new technologies, develop sources of finance, and create channels for marketing their products abroad. They have also established a presence in the increasingly distant arenas where decisions are made that affect their livelihood. Small-farmer organizations now lobby at the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and regional summit meetings. Central American campesinos have attended numerous regional gatherings of agriculture ministers and presidents, as well as events like the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the 1995 Western Hemisphere Presidents' Summit in Miami, the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, and the 1996 Food Security Summit in Rome.
I gratefully acknowledge grants from the National Science Foundation (SBR-9319905), the National Endowment for the Humanities (FA-32493), the Wenner-Gren Foundation (5627), and the PSC-CUNY Research Program (668480). An earlier version of this article was presented at a 1995 seminar of the Yale Program in Agrarian Studies and at the Latin American Studies Association, Washington, D.C., 28–30 September 1995. I greatly appreciate the comments of Anthony Bebbington, Kees Biekart, Michael Dorsey, Charles Hale, James Scott, and LARR's anonymous reviewers. I am also indebted to León Arredondo, Mauricio Claudio, Alcira Forero-Peña, Néstor Hincapié, and Víctor Ortiz, who helped transcribe taped interviews. This project benefited immensely from the friendship, trust, and support of peasant activists, secretaries, and técnicos in organizations throughout Central America. A todos, muchas gracias.