Reuters photos show snapshots of daily life in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
An indigenous Panamain Guaymi, 8-year-
old Maritza Gomez, carries a basket of
freshly harvested coffee at a plantation
in Cirri de Naranjo, 40 miles the north
of San Jose, January 27, 2004. Costa
Rica will pick approximately 250, 000
bags of coffee less than in the previous
crop this year. The drop is a result of
very wet weather and growers finding
problems hiring foreign workers as
pickers according to the director of the
Costa Rican coffee insitute. REUTERS/
Juan Carlos
Ulate
REF: PXP01D
Maria de Jesus Mendez, 77, prepares the
flowers for the palms in the celebration
of the Palm Festival in the village of
Panchimalco 18 kms to the south of San
Salvador, May 4, 2003. REUTERS/Roberto
Escobar
REF: SALVADOR
Nicarguan Maria Artola waits for food
during a march along the highway
leading to Matagalpa, August 6, 2003,
some 63 miles north of the capital
Managua. Thousands of peasants
participated in a march toward Managua
to demand more land, health and work
benefits from the government of
President Enrique Bolanos. REUTERS/
Oswaldo Rivas
PP03080040
REF: NICARAGUA
Emerson Medina, a 19 year old, member of
the 'Mara Salvatrucha'(MS) gang, flashes
gang signs in this photo taken September
29, 2003, after being arrested and
accused of causing injuries, and
participating in robberies, homicides,
aswell as possession of illegal weapons.
An anti-gang law has been approved in El
Salvador leading the way to the capture
of over 1,719 alleged gang members in an
effort to curtail rampant violent crime
and juvenile gangs. The gangs, known as &
quotmaras" are found in large
numbers in the major cities and are
thought to have around 30,000 members in
El Salvador according to Salvadoran
think-tanks. REUTERS/Luis
Galdamez
REF: EL SALVADOR GANGS
A young boy shouts during the final
campaign rally of the Farabundo Marti
National Liberation Front (FMLN), in San
Salvador, March 13, 2004. Presidential
elections will be held on March 21.
REUTERS/Daniel
LeClair
REF: SLV53D
Nicaraguan Eugenio Antonio Gomez, 15,
wipes mud from his hands while working
at a brick making factory for the
equivalent of $2 U.S. a day in La Paz
Centro, 62 kilometres (about 40 miles)
west of Managua October 2, 2003. Eugenio
says he has worked making bricks since
he was 5. He is one of an estimated 314,
000 Nicaraguan children between the ages
of 5 and 17 who according to a report by
the Nicaraguan Ministry of Employment
have worked at some stage in their lives.
According to the same report, 59% of
those children were never paid for their
work. REUTERS/Oswaldo
Rivas
REF: NICARAGUA CHILDREN
A Panama Kuna indian woman sews an
embroidered handicraft to sell to
tourists in Panama's Kuna Yala indian
reserve near the Caribbean Sea, in
Panama, October 5, 2003. The Kunas, who
say they are losing their ancient
traditions, owe their survival to the
United States, which helped the Indians
win self rule after a Kuna uprising in
1925. REUTERS/Alberto Lowe. PHOTO TAKEN
OCTOBER 5 FEATURE TO MATCH STORY LIFE-
PANAMA-
KUNAS
REF: LIFE-PANAMA-KUNAS
A woman presses a lone rose against the
monument to "Memory and Truth"
at the Cuscatlan park in San Salvador,
December 6, 2003. The monument has the
names etched in stone of some 25,000
people who were assassinated or
disappeared during the country's past
civil war, between 1970 and 1992.
REUTERS/Luis
Galdamez
REF: EL SALVADOR
Salvadorian child Marcos Barrios plays
on tombstones in the cemetery of Antiguo
Cuscatlan near San Salvador where he
lives in a community known as 'the
neighbourhood of the living dead', July,
11, 2003. Founded in 1935 by Arcadia
Valdez and her family there is now a
community of 450 adults and children
living amongst the tombstones. REUTERS/
Juan Carlos Ulate
PP03070057
REF: SAL09D
A worker casts a shadow as he dries
coffee at a processing plant in Cirri de
Naranjo, 40 milles the north of San Jose,
January 27, 2004. Costa Rica will pick
up this year approximately 250,000 bags
of coffee less than in the previous crop.
The drop is consequence of the delay
this year the entrance of the summer
time, the early maturation of the fruit
in the undergrowths and problems to hire
foreign workers, said Juan Bautistat
Moya, director of the Costa Rican
Institute of Coffee. REUTERS/Juan
Carlos
Ulate
REF: COSTA RICA COFFEE
A Nicaraguan farmer rests as he and
hundreds of other farmers continued on
the sixth day of their of a protest
march towards Managua, February 6, 2004.
More than 2,000 former banana workers
who claim their health problems such as
sterility and cancer were caused by
exposure to the Nemagon insecticide by
Dow Chemical, used by Dole Food on their
banana plantations in Nicaragua, are
marching 85 miles to the capital to
request government help, in demanding
that Dow and Dole pay reparations.
REUTERS/Oswaldo
Rivas
REF: NIC03D
A Mayan indian man holds a poster which
reads "Wanted, Efrain Rios Montt for
crimes against humanity" during a
protest in Guatemala City July 16, 2003.
Hundreds of Mayan indians protested
against a court ruling which allows
retired Guatemalan General Rios Montt,
accused of genocide during a 36-year
civil war, to run for the presidency in
next November general elections. REUTERS/
Mynor de
Leon
REF: GUATEMALA
A Costa Rican Boruca Indian wearing a
traditional mask takes part in an
indigenous ritual known as "The
Little Devil's Game" in the village
of Rey de Curre, 200 miles south of the
capital San Jose, February 8, 2004.
Dressed in banana leaves, sacks and
traditional masks the villagers perform
a ritual that dates back to colonial
times when the Boruca was known as one
of the groups in southern Costa Rica
that offered most resistance to the
Spanish Conquistadors. REUTERS/Juan
Carlos
Ulate
REF: PXP58D
Carolina Guzman gives respiratory
therapy to her newborn daughter Cindy
Bonilla at the Benjamin Bloom Children's
Hospital in San Salvador July 21, 2003.
The Health Ministry has reported about
41,000 cases of pneumonia and issued a
national yellow alert after an increase
of the disease. REUTERS/Luis
Galdamez
REF: SALVADOR
A Salvadoran fisher pulls a boat with
their patron saint of the fishers &
quotSan Rafael Arcangel" inside,
during the traditional celebration of
the boats procession in honor of their
patron saint of the fishers "San
Rafael Arcangel" at the port of La
Libertad 44 km east of San Salvador, El
Salvador October 23, 2003. About 25
boats cross the coast of the pacific
ocean every year to celebrate liturgic
acts. The effigy was found inside a
trunk by fishers after a fire in a boat
in the year of 1942. REUTERS/Luis
Galdamez
REF: x001040020031023dzan0005m_prt_502
A Salvadoran girl paints a cross at a
cemetery in San Salvador, El Salvador
November 2, 2003 during the celebration
of the Day of the Dead. REUTERS/Luis
Galdamez
REF: SALVADOR
Cardamom, a spice used mainly in Arabic
coffee, is seen at the Veracruz
processing facility in Coban, Guatemala
July 30, 2003. Guatemala is the world's
leading export of the spice, used mostly
in Arabic coffee. Producers of Cardamom
in Guatemala have been struggling
against a drop in prices due an
overproduction in recent years. (PHOTO
TAKEN JULY 30-TO GO WITH BC GUATEMALA
CARDAMOM)REUTERS/Daniel
LeClair
REF: GUATEMALA CARDAMOM
An unemployed Maya Indian coffee picker
protests outside Guatemala's heavily
guarded Congress, June 25, 2003 in
Guatemala City. Plantation workers in
this country, heavily dependent on
coffee exports, accuse President Alfonso
Portillo's government of doing little to
ease their plight during three years of
low prices for beans on world markets.
Mayan pickers who traditionally migrate
to work in plantations in warmer
climates have suffered the most.
REUTERS/Daniel
LeClair
REF: GUATEMALA PROTEST
Jose Peralta, 83, a Nicaraguan former
banana plantation worker who claims her
health problems were caused by exposure
to the Nemagon insecticide, eat during a
protest in front of Parliament in
Managua, February 24, 2004. Hundred
former banana plantation workers who
claim their problems such as sterility
and cancer were caused by Nemagon used
by Dole Food Company on their banana
plantations in Nicaragua in the 1970's,
is protesting to pressure their
government to help them in obtaining
reparations from Dole. REUTERS/Oswaldo
Rivas
REF: NIC02D
A teenage homeless girl breaths glue
fumes from a bag in Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, October 15, 2003. A common
problem in Central America, homeless
children often use glue to get high and
to take away hunger pains. A program
started by Honduras' first lady Aguas
Ocanas de Maduro, originally from Spain,
aims at reducing both child homelessness
and child exploitation. REUTERS/
Daniel LeClair FOR FEATURE STORY
HONDURAS
CHILDREN
REF: HONDURAS CHILDREN
A Costa Rican Boruca Indian plays a
musical instrument during the second day
of an indigenous rite known as "the
little devil's game" in the village
Rey de Curre, 200 miles south of the
capital San Jose, February 7, 2004.
Residents of this small indigenous
community perform each year "the
little devil's game" dressed with
banana leaves, sacks and traditional
masks they've made since colonial times
when they were known as one of the
groups in south Costa Rica that most
resisted the Spanish Conquistadors.
REUTERS/Juan Carlos
Ulate
REF: COSTA RICA INDIAN
Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu, winner of
the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, casts her
ballot during the presidential elections,
November 9, 2003. The national
elections have opened old war wounds and
touched sensitive issues of class and
corruption in the Central American
nation of 11 million people, more than
half of them Maya Indians often living
in deep poverty, with tensions stoked by
the comeback bid of a former military
dictator blamed for civil war atrocities
20 years ago. REUTERS/Jorge
Silva
REF: GUATEMALA ELECTIONS
Salvadoran child looks at candles in the
Basilica of Guadalupe San Salvador, El
Salvador December 11, 2003. Thousands of
Salvadoran pilgrims prepare to celebrate
the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe on
December 12. REUTERS/Roberto
Escobar
REF: EL SALVADOR