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To: Alex who wrote (40013)	9/3/1999 3:56:00 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116972

"THE MEN WITH GUNS" Migrants put their faith in saints -- not banks -- to safeguard their earnings By Lynda Edwards bankrate.com NEAR LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. -- Saint Peter Gonzalez, carved from tin and welded to a rosary made of linked soda can tabs, glitters from the rear view mirror of the battered brown Ford sedan. The patron saint of travelers on hopeless journeys also is painted on plywood pieces nailed to the dash. In one scene, he rescues prisoners guarded by armed men. In another, the saint tenderly carries bullet-riddled dead men into a lightning-slashed sky. In this story: The short straw Workers know better 'Good' news vs.reality <http://www.bankrate.com/zdtv> Attacking the press Easy targets Fighting the fear The Guatemalan migrant workers gathered in this central Florida trailer park admire the retablos, the charms that ward off bad luck. "Protection from the men with guns," one nods. They share some Lucky Strike cigarettes, gazing out at a lake the color of liquid twilight, as their wives and girlfriends softly cry. Then they draw straws to see which of them will make a trip in this car and who may die along the way. The short straw Manuel is a father of three. His oldest son is allowed to watch; he'll be the man in the family if his dad disappears. When Manuel draws a short straw, his wife collapses in her friends' arms. His 6-year-old son silently weeps. Ilario wears his best gold shirt to the ritual. He is single, young and handsome. When he draws the short straw, five women moan in horror. Ilario smiles weakly, lifting his hands toward them: a skirt-chaser's gallant good-bye. Four men in all are chosen for the journey. It's made twice annually, after each sugar and citrus harvest. They'll carry almost $15,000 in cash their friends earned sweating in the fields back to their desperately poor relatives in Guatemala. Mexican migrants make similar treks to their villages from Florida, Texas and the Carolinas. These cash runs mean 2,000-mile drives, dodging hurricanes, civil wars and murderous robbers. Why choose such a dangerous method rather than wire money to banks back home? American banks are flooding Central America with loans in an effort to put the region?s banking system on solid ground. The Clinton administration is lobbying Congress for $18 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help Guatemalan and Mexican banks. The American business press urges investors to do the same. But the migrant workers insist their banks are corrupt and unsafe. "The only way to get money to our relatives is to carry it there," Manuel says. "Many of our banks are run by the men with guns. They rob and kill now with their banks instead of with their armies." Workers know better He's not just repeating folklore, for the migrant workers know something all the American experts don't. Guatemala signed a peace treaty in 1997 ending 30 years of civil war. Now it's overwhelmed with murder and what locals call "bank kidnappings." Customers, often farm workers or factory hands, are snatched from the street just minutes after making a deposit. "We're seeing ransoms for as little as $165," says victim?s advocate Oscar Recinos, whose Guatemala-based group, Neighborhood Guardians, tracks the statistics. Kidnapping gangs are mostly former soldiers or even policemen. And Mexico suffers from the same outbreak, according to human rights observers at Americas Watch. Even when ransoms are paid, victims often are killed. Guatemala's murder rate is five times that of the U.S. Here's the scariest aspect of the crime wave: Guatemalan activists believe that bank managers and tellers (who earn about 70 cents an hour) alert kidnappers when deposits are made, for a cut of the ransom. Last year, a group of Central American academics and researchers known as the "Corn Men Association" (nicknamed for the region's survival food) produced the study: Military Businesses in Central America. The study documented how Guatemalan military men, many of whom were death-squad officers, used their wealth after the war to buy a controlling interest in banks and funeral parlor chains. Well-meaning U.S. State Department bodies like the Agency for International Development approved, noting that ex-soldiers needed civilian jobs. But now, the study concludes, the same men who terrorized Guatemalans for decades know who owes what to whom, who has how much money, whose business will fail and whose will survive. And they share that information with old war chums, including those who now are gang leaders. The Arias Peace Foundation, a think tank based in stable, democratic Costa Rica, echoed the study with its own findings. 'Good' news vs. reality Why do U.S. banks, probably your bank, invest customers' money in such risky businesses? Well, they rely on U.S. government statistics spun into cheery advice in journals such as Banking Strategies (formerly The Magazine of Bank Management). After analyzing U.S. Commerce and American embassy reports, its July/August 1998 issue declared that if American bankers funneled piles of money into Latin banks, those banks would become stable. And then they could buy tons of American financial products, such as ATMs and debit card technology. (cont) bankrate.com