Changing weather patterns are causing widespread crop failures and starvation.

Climate change gives Guatemalan families 2 choices: run away or starve

JOCOTAN, Guatemala-Little Anelli is screaming. Fear, or perhaps the pain of hunger, was engraved on her face. She was a few months younger than 4 years old, and her severe malnutrition made her look like one and a half years old.

Anaeli was crying because she was weighed by a seat belt, which looked like something you could find in an old-fashioned grocery store.

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Her mother Jacinta comes to the village square in Jocotan, Guatemala every two months so that the medical team of the government food assistance program SESAN can track Anaeli's growth.

As part of the ongoing fight against chronic malnutrition, Anaeli was one of about 75 babies and children weighed and measured that day.

Declining crop yields in the region have led to widespread food shortages, and many families in Guatemala face two choices-migrating or watching your children go hungry.

Welcome to the "Dry Corridor" of Central America.

"There is nothing left," Jacinta said.

The dry corridor runs from Guatemala and Honduras through Central America, and through Costa Rica and Panama. Severe drought conditions, or excessive rain at the wrong time, are destroying crops.

Experts in climate and agriculture pointed out that the weather patterns of El Niño and La Niña vary between 20 and 50 years. Changes in the subtropical climate have caused severe damage to this area that was once the fertile birthplace of Maya culture thousands of years ago.

Many rural areas in Guatemala are experiencing catastrophic crop failures. In many areas, crops have failed for seven consecutive years, and yields have fallen for decades.

Guatemalan agricultural engineer Circe Cordon pointed out that the sea of ​​black bean plants is an important source of protein.​​ She also pointed out that another major source of food here-the corn harvest has been hampered.

Corden said she fears that the entire region will become desolate in just a few decades.

"I think some areas will be declared similar to deserts, while other areas will be declared unsustainable," she said.

According to the World Bank, nearly 1 million Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition or stunted growth, and they will never recover. These lifelong effects lead to a 40% reduction in brain development at the age of 3, and adults here are shorter than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.

When she weighed Anaeli, Jacinta received a heavy potato bag full of rice, oats, black beans and cooking oil. This should be enough food for a family of four for six weeks. Jacinta has six children under the age of 12, so she must persist for two months.

Jacinta lives in Amarillo Centro, a small village without running water and toilets. She thinks she is about 29 years old, but she is not sure.

The village where she lives mainly speaks Jyoti—one of dozens of indigenous Mayan tribes that live and cultivate on these picturesque hillsides. Chorti is famous for unique and colorful dresses. But Jacinta does not speak Spanish, which is a requirement for school, so she has no education. She can neither read nor write.

Mayan culture is the pride of Guatemalan culture. In this once fertile area, the way of life has not changed much, but nature has become cruel. The crops have repeatedly failed, so that ten years ago, the village turned to weaving hammocks with plastic rope to make a living.

"It's not enough, it's not enough," Jacinta said. "We can't even afford a quintal of corn. With this money, we have to buy materials, which are expensive. Ropes are expensive."

Jacinta showed me how she soaked corn or corn and then grind it in her stone pestle like her people have done for generations.

"Of course, [my people] are facing hunger because there is not enough money to buy corn," she said.

When we were sitting with Jacinta's family, I noticed a brown liquid in Anaeli's bottle. That is coffee. The mothers here know that caffeine and a little sugar can relieve hunger.

In another small town, there is an indigenous Jyoti. We met Santos, a 16-year-old boy who tried to live a better life in the United States, but he was repatriated by the Mexican authorities.

"It's hard to see the future here," Santos said.

He said that his parents were both self-sufficient farmers, working in the fields year after year, but their dreams were shattered when the crops were hit.

In the United States, many people see immigrants at the U.S. border and think they are fleeing violent gangs or political unrest. But the reason for the migration of nearly 10% of Guatemalans is fleeing hunger.

In the past year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has made 279,000 contacts with Guatemalans trying to cross the border into the country. The Biden administration was the first U.S. government to link immigration and climate change, and released the first report of its kind on the subject last month. But for now, it has not changed any policies, but instead called for an assessment of whether climate change can be a legitimate reason for refugee status.

In the case of Santos, his family said they paid the equivalent of $4,000 in coyote fees to allow their eldest son to enter the United States and meet with uncles who were already in the country. Basically, they used their life savings to bet and borrow more money to allow Santos to travel thousands of miles north.

He told me that his uncle sold oranges in New York. Another uncle was also washing dishes in a restaurant there. Santos showed me a torn paper with his uncle's name and phone number written on it.

The teenager received a third-grade education and had $300. He set off on July 23, 2020, but was forced to return home after being arrested by the Mexican authorities.

"They just grabbed me and sent me to the shelter for about 10 to 15 days," he said. "About 10 days later, they took me out and sent me back to Guatemala."

Santos was determined to try again. On the way to the U.S. border through the gang-run areas of Honduras and Mexico, he did not seem to care or may not be aware of the danger of being an unaccompanied minor.

"Are you afraid?" I asked him (past tense.

"No," he replied quickly, his youthful masculinity prevailing. "Because I pray that God will keep me safe."

He said his dream is to go to the United States to send money to his family.

"For our poverty here, we are almost at the lowest point. To make matters worse, the harvest has not been as we wished," he said.

When I met his mother, she was holding a baby in her arm, and five children wandering around their mud-flooded house. Its ceiling and walls are woven from palm leaves. All eight of them slept in one room, which is also where they cook in the fire pit.

Santos and his family knew directly that the money made in the United States could change lives. A wife of his uncle who lives next door said that her husband had been away for two years. She said that he took their 10-year-old son and had been sending money to her and their three daughters.

"He is working hard for his children in Guatemala," Maria said. "He said, the first thing is to build a house, a place where children can live...so I did it."

When she showed me the building, I was stunned. Just steps away from the Palm Leaf Cottage is a four-bedroom, cinder block and concrete residence under construction.

They are called "castles" in these places, and they are undoubtedly the envy of the village. In fact, the specific wealth of those bravely trekking to the United States is what inspires others to follow suit. In contrast, 25% of Guatemala’s population faces food insecurity, about half of the population lives below the poverty line, and warnings about hardships and dangers along the way pale in comparison.

But some people are trying to change this situation so that Guatemalan farmers have the opportunity to have a future in their hometown, despite the impact of the climate. Circe Cordon is helping to design drought-tolerant corn varieties.

"The corn grown by our people is generally local varieties. Therefore, because they are local varieties, they require a lot of rain," Corden said. "With climate change, we are not raining now."

Corden said the situation is bad, affecting everyone from children to the elderly, many of whom are starving to death.

"It makes people a little helpless," she said. "It's sad to see that they have to immigrate. The children have not even reached the age of adulthood. They have to immigrate to other countries to find new opportunities to be able to secure the future of the family. It is sad. They are leaving here."

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