Correo Clandestino: Breaking the Law along the Guatemalan Postal Routes

In the last quarter of the 18^th century, Bourbon reformers aiming to both improve the mail service and gain revenue from it prohibited the carrying of mail by anyone other than official mail carriers, or correos.  Nevertheless, people in Guatemala continued to send mail by private courier, in part because the official system simply did not cover all the routes in Central America.  This paper examines the range of illegal activities that flourished around the postal routes in the late 18^th century as a consequence and despite of Bourbon reforms.  “Clandestine mail” sent by private messenger was seized and fined heavily.  Official mail carriers were charged by private individuals with carrying personal goods, such as medicine and luxury items, a practice that was also outlawed by the reforms. The pattern of illegal activity along the mail routes and by mail carriers themselves reveals the manner in which routes were utilized and conceived by those who knew them best – long-distance foot messengers. Once outside the urban centers, mail carriers and messengers operated within their own, largely unregulated network.