The Bitten Hand

In the continuing process of learning the subtle difficulties involved in giving away money, the U.S. got a lesson last week from Guatemala.

Over the past five years, Washington's International Cooperation Administration has poured $80 million into Guatemala, built eight agricultural-experiment stations, three agrarian-resettlement projects, miles of roads, including the Atlantic highway. But it has not pleased Clemente Marroquin Rojas, 62, last year's Vice President and now Agriculture Minister. Curmudgeon Marroquin Rojas, terrible-tempered owner-editor-publisher of the daily La Hora, holds nothing sacred. He has attacked his own boss, President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes ("General, watch yourself"), and the Roman Catholic Church ("greedy"). Recently, he took a pitchfork to the ICA. He complained that in ICA projects, "gringos run the show," snapped that the ICA Forestry School is "a useless luxury," called U.S. officials "impertinent."

In May the disgruntled U.S. embassy finally sent a note to the Guatemalan government: "Did the Minister of Agriculture speak for his government?" No, replied the government, but it did nothing about Marroquin Rojas' attacks. Last week the U.S. did. The ICA pulled out of the jointly supported U.S.-Guatemalan Agriculture Service, ended its contract with the Agriculture Department (but did sign a new, smaller cooperation contract with the agrarian institute, a government corporation not under Marroquin Rojas). Under the renegotiated arrangement, the 22 U.S. experts will be trimmed to eight, and the U.S. contribution to Guatemala's farm improvement will drop from $500,000 annually to $300,000. Marroquin Rojas cracked, "What's the crying about?" and told La Hora readers to be sure to read The Ugly American.

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