In the week we were in Guatemala, I never once felt at risk or uncomfortable. The people were always friendly and accommodating. Whether I knew it or not, I was probably “protected” as a tourist.
However, check out the picture above. The people in the center are members of our group. See the two men in black on the right side of the building? Those are armed guards.
The picture above is in front of a bank.
Here is a guard at a convenience store at a gas station. He was very friendly and held the door open to any patron that walked up to it.
The guards are also never shy about posing with tourists. There is quite a bit of that going on all the time.
It became quickly obvious that any business of significance required armed guards. Banks usually had two or three heavily armed guards, with full battle uniforms and bullet-proof vests. Hotels, restaurants, gas stations, car dealerships, and many other retail businesses had armed guards. I didn’t count them, but just riding in a shuttle from Guatemala City to Antigua, which is a very industrial stretch, I am sure I saw hundreds of armed guards in front of businesses.
We went to visit a coffee plantation.
The Filadelfia Estate is owned by the family of Robert Dalton. The plantation was started in 1870 and Dalton is the 4th generation owner. It’s a huge farm and I learned a lot about coffee that I never knew. I will not ever look at a coffee bean the same way again. But I digress.
We took a tour of the plantation. At one point, we stopped and the guide explained the harvesting of coffee beans when I looked over and saw a huge wall behind the trees.
The green shrubs in the foreground are coffee plants. The trees are shade trees that are necessary to protect the coffee. The wall is huge, with a chain link fence on top, and razor wire coils above that. At the corner, there is a cluster of video surveillance equipment.
Looking in the other direction, the chain link fence is even higher. You can see the bars in the center of the image. This is on top of the wall.
We were obviously curious what’s behind that wall, so we asked the guide.
“The house of the owner” was the answer.
In the context of security, this is a frightening thought.
The owner of a large coffee plantation is obviously very rich. His house is probably beautiful and opulent, yet, nobody can see it since it’s behind a 20 foot high wall. Not only is it inside a wall, but it’s way in the middle of a plantation which is surrounded by fences, and a massive guard house with armed men protecting it 24 hours a day.
The owner has to basically imprison himself in concentric circles of security to be safe. I cannot imagine living this way. He must be in constant fear of being kidnapped, obviously, why otherwise would he imprison himself and his family.
Hotels in Guatemala are also interesting with regard to security. I wrote about that in another post.
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