ELBOWING OUT INITIATIVE
Ekblad, Robert
MINAS DE ORO IS A PICTURESQUE agricultural village in a remote and mountainous region of Comayagua department. Once a site where fortunes were made and lost in the search for gold, it now hosts...
...AID-financed Ministry of Natural Resources began a well-funded project in Minas...
...team with a minimum of outside funding...
...Said one Tierra Nueva farmer, "'the government talks with one foot in the jeep and the other on the road...
...As a Tierra Nueva farmer said, the government is trying to "harvest what they haven't planted...
...The extension agents rarely visited farms not accessible by jeep, and according to the farmers, preferred to give out advice the way physicians hand out prescriptions...
...What most interests them are our crop yields and the length of our ditches for their monthly reports...
...Promises were made and broken at an alarming rate...
...In addition to the ever-present preoccupation with soil conservation, peasant groups discussed broader issues about human rights and their lives as peasants...
...When the ruse was discovered, the extension agents were furious and since then have made no secret of their effort to destroy Tierra Nueva...
...Five years ago a development initiative was launched by a Honduran-U.S...
...Farmers active in the co-op's agricultural committees are routinely refused assistance...
...TENSIONS MOUNTED ONE DAY IN LATE 1985 1 when the government's department head turned up in Minas, To avoid embarrassment, government employees tried to claim credit for co-op members* accomplishments...
...The leadership is more determined then ever to organize independently and without interference from the AID-supported government ministry...
...The founders of "Tierra Nueva" understood that only home-grown solutions could effectively address local problems...
...Tierra Nueva is a small but important example of how U.S.-aid has sometimes squeezed out successful initiatives...
...Fertilizer and pasture grass are offered in "payment" to those who switch sides and join the government-sponsored projects...
...A half dozen "professional technicians" were assigned to Minas...
...Those needing aid are required to leave Tierra Nueva and organize new government-controlled committees...
...Throwing around their money as well as their weight, Robert Ekblad was a founder of the Tierra Nueva project and lived in Minas de Oro until last August...
...Local farmers were trained as agricultural, health and literacy "promoters" * who were soon teaching courses and organizing cooperative-like committees in over 50 villages...
...Pressure on Tierra Nueva escalated throughout 1987 as rumors circulated that those associated with the movement were communists and that cooperating farmers were armed with subversive literature as well as weaponry...
...The campesinos eke out a subsistence on steep land gutted by centuries of neglect and overuse...
...Yet now, Minas de Oro is an example of the harmful effects of foreign aid...
...Promoter" is used throughout Central America to describe someone working at the grassroots level in health, literacy, art, sanitation as well as the Church...
...Peasants received cash payments as an incentive to change traditional farming practices...
...In early 1985, the U.S...
...government extension agents sought to squeeze out Tierra Nueva's own promoters...
...Another said that "they want to keep us ignorant so they can guarantee their jobs...
...Soil and water conservation was begun in Minas de Oro and surrounding communities...
...Despite more lofty goals, AID's program has disrupted a peasant movement painstakingly organized over five years...
...Suddenly thousands of dollars flooded the area...
...Once a site where fortunes were made and lost in the search for gold, it now hosts an army of peasants wrestling to meet daily needs for corn and beans...
...The campaign of intimidation has only reinforced the resolve of the 1,000 families involved in Tierra Nueva...
...As in much of Honduras, the best land is owned by a wealthy minority who use it for coffee and cattle...
Vol. 22 • January 1988 • No. 1
