Consequently, as many as 600,000 farmers travel to the south coast every year to supplement their meager incomes. According to a 1982 AID study, Guatemala had the most unequal land distribution of any Latin American nation. A few hundred of Guatemala's wealthiest families control 80 percent of the land in the south, some of Central America's most fertile ground. Forty-seven families control 75 percent of cotton production while 94 percent of the sugar produced comes from the country's 10 largest sugar mills. With so many people living on land plots which are not big enough to support them, the few large land holders have an almost bottomless pool of labor.
Wages are extremely low and there are reports that workers are both abused and cheated by employers.
Low wages are the rule rather than the exception on most plantations. Younger workers are paid even less than adults because the largely unenforced wage laws do not apply to them. And still workers say they must fight to keep from being cheated when their cane is weighed. According to Bob Stix of the U.S.-based Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, workers also face severe repression from the police and military. The military uses death threats to try to keep small farmers from working with the unions.