and relocation of indigenous workers. Mechanisms The law did not redistribute land automatically. It created a National Agrarian Department (DAN), and required people without land to file requests with Local Agrarian Committees (CALs). CALs would then make decisions about how to reappropriate the land of major owners. Landowners could dispute these decisions, with an appeals process going all the way up to the President. The committees were formed from local groups, and intended to foster the spirit of community control and local political power. As suggested by the PGT, the law also gave new landowners the option of choosing lifetime tenure instead of private ownership, with the goal of preventing large landowners from simply buying back the land. The Fincas Nationales were available only through the lifetime tenure option. According to José Manuel Fortuny, a PGT leader who helped draft the legislation: We [the PGT] proposed the creation of peasant committees [CALs] in order to lay the groundwork for the eventual radicalization of the peasantry. We talked to Arbenz about this, and he agreed with us. What we wanted was to foster the control of the reform from below. This would give the peasants a strong sense of their common needs. And if, from the system of lifetime tenure, cooperatives developed, the seeds of a more collective society would have been sown. Finally, the law established a system for using bonds to compensate people who lost acres to peasants. The property owners were paid in bonds which matured in 25 years; value of the land was based on claims made on the previous year's tax returns. Land, literacy and credit Credit for those receiving land was mandated by additional legislation in 1953, which also established a National Agrarian Bank (BNA). The government dispensed $3,371,185 in loans during 1953; $3,049,092 had been paid back by July 1954—a historically unusual success in lending. Beginning in 1954, land and credit were supplemented by literacy programs—the third major plank of the reform program. Effects on Guatemala Land and farming By 1954, had been reappropriated. 100,000 families (about 500,000 people, one sixth of the population) had received land as well as bank credit and technical aid. The law affected about 1,700 estates of the country's richest and most conservative people and groups Production of corn, coffee, and bananas increased while the law was in effect in 1953 and 1954. High coffee prices bolstered the national