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Guatemala's Sweet Deal

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human rights improvements. Our world this week is set in Guatemala.

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This is the story of two worlds that straddle a beautiful land. It

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is about sugar and inequality. Hope and the unknown. Who are these

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people coming up to us? So duty. you think we should go? There is a

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lot of violence. People heard people. It is about how selling

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Sugar might make things Ferrer and safer. We welcome any meant Bach's

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-- Denmark's and anything that leads to maturity. It is also a

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story about the children of the We are flying due south of

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Guatemala City to one of the world's most modern ports, --

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modern boards. We meet Jose A Reeve, a man with a vision. He represents

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the sugar industry of Central Guatemala is rich in agriculture

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and resources. But society is corrupt and violent. People are

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poor and hungry. The government is We have flown 40 minutes out of the

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capital. They are about to land at the shipping terminal specially-

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built to export sugar. His belief is that trade is the key to

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building strong democracy. Nearby is a milk owned by Pantaleon, the

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biggest sugar company in Central America. -- and mill. Rock, freshly

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harvested sugar-cane enters its first stage of processing. Tens of

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thousands of people rely on it for It has been in the sugar business

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since 1849. since 1849.t how There has now been a landmark

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international deal that puts these grains of sugar under the closest

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of scrutiny. It's between the 27 countries of the European Union and

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the six of Central America and its the first of its kind. -- it is the

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first. I feel proud. I feel proud because the productivity that my

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family dedicated itself to is helping the country have an

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opportunity for growth. In the case of sugar, it has been taken to such

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levels of efficiency. Central America can now sell sugar and

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other food to the European Union and get a higher price. To achieve

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that, it must co-operate on for more than just product quality. On

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sensitive issues like human rights and corruption. In short, the

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European agreement is about how the rich share with the poor and how

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people are treated. We will create growth, growth that

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is sustainable and respecting human rights and democracy. You welcome

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the fact that that is part of the trade agreement? Sure. You cannot

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develop a country without that. We need to have sustainable economic

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growth. And we understand it is very hard to have a stable

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government without economic growth. We have to work together.

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The history of sugar is far from sweet. It is a story of slavery and

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cheap migrant labour. Back in the 18th century, the writer Voltaire

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described appalling injuries to workers as the price they paid for

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For a very long time, low wages and dangerous conditions had given rich

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-- have given rich countries. The work might look the same. Things

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are different in this particular field. These cutters work for the

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big international sugar exporter Pantaleon. It employs 25,000 people.

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In the harvest season, thousands of cane cutters. They earn about $500

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a month. That is far above the Dima Saliva tells me he has been

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working the field since 1983. It is hard and filthy. Much has changed.

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He has access to health care and a pension fund and has given safety

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equipment, goggles, gloves, leg guards. The hour was a shorter and,

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for the company, more Keane is cut. -- sugar-cane. The cost of looking

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after them pays for itself many times. US. It pays a lot. Does

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everybody understand that in the sugar industry? Yes. It is a well-

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known situation. The tools of the trade might be from another age.

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The machete is not much different from when Guatemala's for stew

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refinery opened in 1591. -- first sugar refinery. Life is far from

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easy but the conditions are well within international law. The

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industry is straining to achieve a more competitive, sustainable model.

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It does not respond to people. That means -- model but response to

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people. Wait to work on providing people with better opportunities

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for them and future generations through quality training and jobs

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and respect. Internationally, we want to keep growing. We want to

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keep securing a place where we achieve what we want because of

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efficiency and doing things the right way.

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That was the story of hope. Now we try not more than two hours away to

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another world for a first glance -- where, at first glance, it doesn't

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look that different. Julio is a trade union official. Augusto as an

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activist who knows the cane fields well. He was put to work when he

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was just 11 years old. They want to show us the dark side of the sugar

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industry. That is where we are heading.

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These are migrant workers, casual His name is Michael. Sadly, Augusto

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That's about $60 every two weeks. About 500,000, one in six of

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Guatemala's children like Michael, or working. The man with him said

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If Wright, they make just a quarter what the Pantaleon cutters were

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds

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getting and the hours are much Then, we were interrupted. Who are

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these people coming up to us now? Security. Private security.

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think we should go? Yes. Things aren't that straight forward. All

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handshakes, formal ones. It turns out there from a nearby mill.

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Enough of a presence to prompt a quick departure from Michael, his

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father and the cane cutters. They have not come to stop us filming or

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to monitor child labour but to Then they left. But so had Mike

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Hall. These guys here don't know where they have gone, do they? --

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Michael. Apparently he was in the next field. So we went to find him.

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The use of children, the uncontrolled burning, the lack of

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safety measures... the mainstream industry who we were with before

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say sugar 1/2 this could this way could never be sold to Europe. --

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harvested. Their cheques are too rigorous. The European Commission

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told me it was impossible to be completely certain. But it expected

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Guatemalan not to break the law and to abide by its promises. --

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Guatemala. Augusto's sceptical that Europe can change anything here. We

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think we have found the field where Mike Hall is working. Augusto

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interrupts the cane cutters lunch to ask where he might be. --

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Michael. Then the foreman arrives and tells them to get back to work

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immediately. "Don't argue, just do it," He says. All in good humour,

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but they get ready. Augusto asks him when he actually started

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We find Michael nearby. Hard at work just as he described. But not

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only him but another child's there. There's no sense among the cutters

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that this is indeed all wrong. Even the security guys from the other

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male admitted it was going on, but didn't try to stop it. -- meal.

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Next to the cane fie village of Las Flores. -- is.

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Unpaid and poor sanitation. A sugar mill has not yet materialised here.

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That afternoon we reflected on the lives of Michael and children like

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For parents that creeping threat is always a worry. With no real sense

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Have any of you guys met any body from the European Union, or any

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body that some monitoring the cane For generations there's been a

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sense that the system will never deliver for them. Historically in

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Latin America it's fuelled rebellion, creating legends such as

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The tiny Caribbean Coffee Republic of Guatemala or suffers its 60th

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political upheaval in 20 years... How to deliver fairness left. Left

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pitted against Wright was at the heart of Cold War politics. It left

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Guatemala and the whole region in conflict. -- left pitted against

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The fighting itself has now ended, although that took time. But the

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issue of equality remains BP in the sugar belt that produces

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so much wealth, about half an hour's drive from where we found

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Michael, is the small town of San Jose Di Idolo. -- deep in. A local

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businessman ran to become mayor because he said people have been

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This is Alfredo lamb's regular meeting with mothers and children.

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds

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Many of the men are in prison or Then down the Alice of shack homes,

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almost half the children don't get enough food. -- alleys. Guatemala

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has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world and is one of

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Bad government, a lack of food and money. Yet the sugar industry now

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says it has a blueprint for the country's development. What's

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happening here is not government legislation and enforcement. Nor is

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it an influx of international aid. The sugar industry itself has made

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a decision that it's got to stop treating its workers badly, and

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make fundamental changes to gain greater access to global markets.

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Trade and this new agreement is seen as the way forward. Europe,

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although so far away, was once torn apart by war, dictatorship and

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depression just like Guatemala. And it's now been adopted as a guiding

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beacon. As we fly back from the Pantaleon Sugar Mill, Jose

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underlines his enthusiasm for the Essentially it's about how the most

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vulnerable, like Michael, are treated by the secure and powerful.

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And whether a document negotiated by those unfamiliar with the soot

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and the grit of the cane fields will have any impact at all. It's a

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good thing because a succession agreement will give a stronger

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mandate to the EU to monitor, and a stronger framework for the

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government to be able to pull together all the actors together

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and the government itself to do an internal job of monitoring human

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rights. We are very committed to better and better conditions each

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day on Human Rights. But it's a trade agreement. It's almost a

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condition that if you violate any of those, the trade agreement is

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going to stop. We don't see it as a condition. We see it as going

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We know that what's happening here is not right. At dusk they elope

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