374 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
Latin America. Comparative statistics show that countries like Guatemala and El Sal-
vador compete for last place when it comes to indices of underdevelopment (Mexico
and other countries in Central America follow quite closely). Countries like Mexico
and Costa Rica have overall better standards of living in the region. They still experi-
ence, however, unequal distributive patterns that hurt the peasant and urban infor-
mal sectors alike.
Most attempts to explain the roots of underdevelopment in the region agree
that the model of agroexport development has been detrimental to the largest sec-
tors of the population. Commercial agriculture in the Colonial period contributed
to the concentration of fertile lands in the hands of a small elite. This was by far the
primary cause of the impoverishment of the rural populations, even in Mexico, where
land reform and the implementation of the ejido system has not resolved land in-
equities. Lands were (and are) used for export crops instead of food crops for local
consumption, and the proportion of lands devoted to the former is still increasing.
This usage forces many of the peoples of Central America and Mexico to import
food that they traditionally produced. Furthermore, the internationalization of the
market has resulted in an accommodation of prices that has generated uneven terms
of trade. Although some analysts thought that the concentration on a few exports
would generate larger funds for investment and give the area a “comparative ad-
vantage,” in practice there have been detrimental consequences of this development
strategy. While prices for agricultural exports have declined, those for the manufac-
tured goods that the people of the region must import have increased, creating un-
even trading stances.
The high price of manufactured goods, combined with the great instability of
prices of agricultural products, has generated the need for export diversification.
The expansion of nontraditional agricultural exports, like beef, has taken over large
extensions of good lands in such countries as Costa Rica and Honduras. The lack of
land has generated a differentiated rural population competing among themselves
for scarce resources. A most evident expression of this situation is the high level of
malnutrition, especially in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Export agriculture, combined with population growth, has significantly con-
tributed to environmental degradation. Soils are being exhausted because of inten-
sification of production and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides. Deforestation
is creating further erosion as forested areas are converted to cotton or other export
crops or construction timber. As a consequence of all of these factors, landlessness
and unemployment have increased in the rural areas. Whereas some people have
migrated to the cities, thus becoming part of the lower sectors of urban society, oth-
ers have resorted to the economic strategies outlined before. Indeed, most commu-
nity development alternatives seem to point to the need for some form of land
reform. Costa Rica and Honduras have a somewhat more equitable land distribu-
tion program than Guatemala and El Salvador. Some steps have been taken in Mex-
ico, but the situation there is far from resolved.
When land reform is not an option, the development programs that have proved
most successful are those in which community members are allowed a greater degree