Maribel Reviews Rafael's Background Check

Maribel stepped outside into the bright morning sunshine. She turned and locked the deadbolt on her front door with the key in her hand. She turned back toward the street to look for Luis with her car. It was there, of course, pulled up to the side of the street. Luis was already walking toward her. No doubt he would try to take the little suitcase she had packed, one of the carry-on cases she uses when flying, for her trip to the Food First facility in Quiche. She would be there two days, possibly a third and had packed according. She had an extra set of clothes for a semi-formal lunch meeting that would take place tomorrow.

Luis was as predictable as rain in the spring, "May I take your bag, Miss Flores?" He asked, reaching a hand toward the handle.

"Oh, Luis." She said exasperated, "Look, my father is a thousand kilometers away in Peru. PLEASE call me Maribel, at least while we're here in Guatemala. And what makes you think I'm going to start letting people carry my bags now? I've still got two good arms." She laughed. Luis was a creature of habit. He would never change. He was also very loyal to her father and would follow his direction to the letter, regardless of Maribel's wishes.

He withdrew his hand and smiled, "As you wish… Maribel."

She did a double take. Did he just call her Maribel as she asked? He had never, ever done that before.

Seeing her surprised look, Luis supplied, "Your father has told me that while here in Guatemala, I am to consider you to be in charge. I should follow your orders as if they were his. Only if your orders put your safety at risk, he said, should I remember who really pays me." He smiled.

Maribel smiled, too. That was just like her father, even on the rare occasions when he gave up power or let someone else make decisions, he had to remind people that he was still the ultimate authority. Still, though, she was pleased that her father seemed to be keeping his word about letting her have her independence. She was twenty-eight after all, and not a child. It was ironic that she had to throw a temper-tantrum to finally get him to agree to let her demonstrate that she was a capable adult.

"Well, good," She said aloud, "Let's get going. I'm anxious to finally meet all the people we have working here." She walked to the car and waited for Luis to open the back door as he always did. She put her case on the ground beside the car and climbed in. Luis shut her door carefully and picked up the case to place it in the back of the SUV. He got into the driver's side and started the car. Maribel was unaware of the irony of casually assuming he would stow her bag after her previous reluctance to let him help her. Luis grinned at the way she didn't even realize when she demonstrated her entitled upbringing. Then, he frowned as he remembered that her entitled upbringing was a complete fiction. Maribel was just a character created to play a part in the operation's cover story... But still, the more he acted like it was her real identity, the better it would be.

Her father had wanted to get her a Mercedes, but she had insisted on something more practical. She wanted to be able to travel to the back country where, she was told, the roads might be in poor condition. The four-wheel drive Toyota Prado she told him was the one she wanted. He agreed, but wanted to make sure it first went to Alpine Armoring for refitting with bullet-proof acrylic windows and armor plating built into the doors and body panels. Because of the time constraint, they had had to buy a used one from one his business associates. It was a few years old but had been gone over with a fine-toothed comb and detailed to perfection. She noticed a bottle of water in the cup-holder in front of her and smiled. Luis never missed a thing, his attention to detail was legendary back home. Carlos was the same way, but he was more of a shadowy figure to her. She knew that he was charged with her protection when Luis was unavailable, but Carlos was more a guard than her assistant. He was a little scary with his aloof manner. He seemed to be a very dangerous man. Luis, she did not doubt, was equally capable, but seemed more friendly. Maybe it was just because she spent more time around him.

Anyway she opened her ever-present purse. It was an oversized shoulder bag that doubled as a briefcase for her. There was an inside pouch that could fit a ream of paper. She always kept any documents she needed for her business dealings there. Today she had several copies of a report about the Food First organization. It was the full PR package, with their mission statement, pictures of the first warehouse and farmers dropping off their harvests and smiling as they picked up the end-product. The special processing unit they had ordered from the United States had much higher yields than the old hand-processing methods traditionally used here in Guatemala. There were pictures of them selling tortillas and ground corn at markets. The text outlined how they had barely produced enough to keep their own village fed even in good years before the added efficiency of the new machinery. Now, they had enough excess to sell for profit at markets in neighboring villages.

Her ultimate goal was to lift the people of rural Guatemala out of poverty and help them lead better lives. In her vision of the future, children would not be called away from school to work in the fields or help with chores around the house. They would all receive a proper education and even make it to secondary school and beyond if they so chose.

These were the packages she used for meeting with potential donors when she was trying to secure funding for Food First. The machinery had been her biggest expense to date. If she had more funding, she could cover more territory in Guatemala, moving into other districts, or Departments as they were called in Guatemala, she reminded herself.

She read the letter from this mysterious Rafael. It hinted at a potential partnership. Maybe she could get him to pay for another processing machine and set up a second location farther to the east in Huehuetenango. She had been told that this area was dangerous country. She had Luis use the family resources to do a background check on this Rafael character. He had some extensive and varied business operations in Guatemala and appeared to be well-connected. The report suggested that he was, perhaps, too well-connected, and was strongly suspected of having ties to the gangs and drug-smuggling operations. Several of his business rivals had been killed by suspected gang members or had 'disappeared' under mysterious circumstances. Police investigations had never found any evidence of wrong doing on his behalf or ever caught anyone responsible for the unfortunate demise of his adversaries.

There was even a story of a team of assassins being sent after him from Chiapas to ambush him at a planned meeting. His own security team had gotten word of the attack in advance however, and ambushed the would-be ambushers according to the story, killing most and sending the rest running back across the border into Mexico. Again, the police could not find anyone to hold responsible. This supported the view that at least some of the police and local government officials were covering up for him. Some even suggested they were directly on his payroll and not only covered up for him, but sometimes actively took part in certain activities on his behalf.

She would have to be careful, she would not let Food First be tainted by scandal or contribute in any way to drug trafficking. Still, if she could get a sizable donation to the cause, it was perhaps fitting to take back some of the illegal profits made by these criminals on the backs of the poor.

She reviewed these reports as they drove. Traffic in and around Guatemala City was always crazy. Several times she was startled by the noise of "bombas" exploding nearby. These locally made fireworks had become increasingly popular in the larger towns, especially among gang members who always laughed to see people jump or duck for cover fearing that the noise was from gunfire. She shook her head.

Soon enough, they were out of the city and travelling through the countryside. Their route would take them west on CA1 and then north on route 15. This route would have decent roads at least.

Next she went through the report of the staff at the Food First operation in Sacapulas. She had reviewed it before, but she wanted to make sure she could recognize people and call them out by name when she got there. This file had names and photos of everyone on the payroll there. For the drivers, it even had a photo of their vehicles, mostly old pick-up trucks that looked like they should have been sold for scrap metal long ago. The men of the poor villages, she was told, were very proud to have such vehicles, so she would make a point of telling them how nice the vehicles were. She wrinkled her brow, thinking it might sound false coming from someone pulling up in a shiny, armored Prado… Maybe she could just say that their trucks looked like the right kind of reliable, rugged vehicles that could get the job done where fancy cars would fail, or something like that. She'd work on it.