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Travel to Guatemala — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorGuatemala
| Republic of Guatemala National
name: República de Guatemala President: Álvaro Colom Caballeros
(2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 41,865 sq mi (108,430 sq km);
total area: 42,042 sq mi (108,890 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 12,728,111 (growth
rate: 2.2%); birth rate: 29.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 29.8/1000;
life expectancy: 69.7; density per sq mi: 304
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Guatemala City, 2,655,900 (metro. area),
1,128,800 (city proper) Other large
cities: Mixco, 287,600; Villa Nueva, 138,900 Monetary unit: Quetzal
Languages:
Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23
officially recognized Amerindian languages, including Quiche,
Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca)
Ethnicity/race:
Mestizo (Ladino)—mixed Amerindian-Spanish
ancestry—and European 59.4%, K'iche 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam 7.9%,
Q'eqchi 6.3%, other Mayan 8.6%, indigenous non-Mayan 0.2%, other 0.1%
(2001)
Religions:
Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan
beliefs Literacy rate: 71% (2003
est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP
(2007 est.): $67.45 billion; per capita $5,400. Real growth
rate: 5.6%. Inflation: 6.6%. Unemployment: 3.2%
(2005 est.). Arable land: 13%. Agriculture: sugarcane,
corn, bananas, coffee, beans, cardamom; cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens.
Labor force: 3.958 million; agriculture 50%, industry 15%,
services 35% (1999 est.). Industries: sugar, textiles and
clothing, furniture, chemicals, petroleum, metals, rubber, tourism.
Natural resources: petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle,
hydropower. Exports: $7.468 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): coffee,
sugar, petroleum, apparel, bananas, fruits and vegetables, cardamom.
Imports: $12.67 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): fuels, machinery
and transport equipment, construction materials, grain, fertilizers,
electricity. Major trading partners: U.S., El Salvador,
Honduras, Mexico, South Korea, China (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 1.355 million (2006); mobile cellular: 7.179 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 130, FM 487, shortwave 15 (2000).
Television broadcast stations: 26 (plus 27 repeaters) (1997).
Internet hosts: 40,927 (2007). Internet users: 1.32
million (2006). Transportation:
Railways: total: 886 km (2006). Highways: total: 14,095 km;
paved: 4,863 km (including 75 km of expressways); unpaved: 9,247 km
(1999). Waterways: 990 km; note: 260 km navigable year round;
additional 730 km navigable during high-water season (2007). Ports
and harbors: Puerto Quetzal, Santo Tomas de Castilla.
Airports: 402 (2007). International
disputes: Guatemalan squatters continue to settle in the rain
forests of Belize's border region; OAS is attempting to revive the
2002 failed Differendum that created a small adjustment to land
boundary, a Guatemalan maritime corridor in Caribbean, a joint
ecological park for the disputed Sapodilla Cays, and a substantial
US-UK financial package; Guatemalans enter Mexico illegally seeking
work or transit to the US.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
The northernmost of the Central American nations, Guatemala is the size
of Tennessee. Its neighbors are Mexico on the north and west, and Belize,
Honduras, and El Salvador on the east. The country consists of three main
regions—the cool highlands with the heaviest population, the tropical area
along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, and the tropical jungle in the
northern lowlands (known as the Petén).
Government
Constitutional democratic republic.
History
Once the site of the impressive ancient Mayan civilization, Guatemala
was conquered by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado in 1524 and became
a republic in 1839 after the United Provinces of Central America
collapsed. From 1898 to 1920, dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera ran the
country, and from 1931 to 1944, Gen. Jorge Ubico Castaneda served as
strongman.
After Ubico's overthrow in 1944 by the “October Revolutionaries,” a
group of left-leaning students and professionals, liberal-democratic
coalitions led by Juan José Arévalo (1945–1951) and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
(1951–1954) instituted social and political reforms that strengthened the
peasantry and urban workers at the expense of the military and big
landowners, like the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. With covert U.S.
backing, Col. Carlos Castillo Armas led a coup in 1954, and Arbenz took
refuge in Mexico. A series of repressive regimes followed, and by 1960 the
country was plunged into a civil war between military governments,
right-wing vigilante groups, and leftist rebels that would last 36 years,
the longest civil war in Latin American history. Death squads murdered an
estimated 50,000 leftists and political opponents during the 1970s. In
1977, the U.S. cut off military aid to the country because of its
egregious human rights abuses. The indigenous Mayan Indians were singled
out for special brutality by the right-wing death squads. By the end of
the war, 200,000 citizens were dead.
A succession of military juntas dominated during the civil war, until a
new constitution was passed and civilian Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo was
elected and took office in 1986. He was followed by Jorge Serrano Elías in
1991. In 1993, Serrano moved to dissolve Congress and the supreme court
and suspend constitutional rights, but the military deposed Serrano and
allowed the inauguration of Ramiro de Leon Carpio, the former attorney
general for human rights. A peace agreement was finally signed in Dec.
1996 by President Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen.
In 1999, a Guatemalan truth commission blamed the army for 93% of the
atrocities and the rebels (the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit) for
3%. The former guerrillas apologized for their crimes, and President
Clinton apologized for U.S. support of the right-wing military
governments. The army has not acknowledged its guilt. Alfonso Portillo
Cabrera, closely associated with the former dictatorship of Efrain Rios
Montt (1982–1983), became president in Jan. 2000. In Aug. 2000, Portillo
apologized for the former government's human rights abuses and pledged to
prosecute those responsible and compensate victims.
To stimulate the economy, Guatemala, along with El Salvador and
Honduras, signed a free trade agreement with Mexico in June 2000. In Aug.
2001, plans for tax increases prompted widespread, and often violent,
protests.
In July 2003, the country's highest court ruled that former coup leader
and military dictator Rios Montt, responsible for the massacre of tens of
thousands of civilians during the civil war, was eligible to run for
president in November. The ruling conflicted with the constitution, which
bans anyone who seized power in a coup from running for the presidency.
But in November, Rios Montt was soundly defeated by two candidates,
conservative Oscar Berger and center-leftist Alvaro Colom. In the runoff
election in December, Berger was elected president.
In 2004, Guatemala experienced an alarmingly violent crime wave. More
than 2,000 murders took place, which were blamed on crime gangs and bands
of teenagers.
In 2005, the government ratified a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with
the U.S.
Three Salvadoran politicians, all members of the Central American
Parliament, and their driver were found murdered on a road near Guatemala
City in Feb. 2007. Four Guatemalan police officers were arrested in
connection with the murders and later shot dead in their prison cells.
Three other officers were named as suspects. Guatemala's security
minister, the national police chief, and the director of the country's
prisons all resigned in the scandal.
Fourteen candidates, including 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta
Menchú, competed in the first round of presidential elections in September
2007. Otto Pérez Molina, a former general, and businessman Álvaro Colom
advanced to the second round.
After a vitriolic campaign, Álvaro Colom, of the National Unity for
Hope party, defeated Otto Pérez Molina in the presidential election on
November 4, 2007, 52% to 47%.
See also Encyclopedia: Guatemala
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Guatemala
National Institute of Statistics (In Spanish Only)
www.segeplan.gob.gt/ine/index.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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