Country Profile: Guatemala

Brief Description: 

Guatemala is situated in North America. Its total area of land is 108890 square km. The total population of the is 1400000.The official language is Spanish. The literacy rate of the country is 72% . It gained freedom in 1821.It got membership of UN in 1945.

Brief History: 

It is thought that the prehispanic inhabitants of Americas arrived from Siberia. They hunted mammoths, fished and gathered wield foods .The Maya honed their agricultural techniques. Maya started to build platform temples from stone in EI peten which was place full of limestone. The Maya produced prehispanic America’s most brilliant civilization. They started to use elaborate long Court calendar to date all human history .The classic Maya were organized into battle against rival cities. Most of the city states were probably grouped into two loose military alliances in the early of classic period. In the late 8^th century, there was a conflict between them and trade started to shrink.

The Aztec Empire was defeated by Spaniard under Hernam Cortes in 1521.Pedro de Alvarado entered Guatemala and defeated a small Kiche force on the pacific slope. Alvarado moved his base from tecpan to snatiago de los Caballeros in 1527 but it was destroyed by flood in 1541.The Spanish enslaved Guatemala’s indigenous people. las casas had witnessed firsthand the near complete genocide of the indigenous populations of Cuba and Hispaniola. The king agreed that the indigenous people should be considered Vassals of the king. Only the European-bron Spaniards had real power in Guatemala. Guatemalan criollos took advantage of Spanish weakness following a Napoleonic invasion in 1808 and it was revolt in 1821.But there was little change in indigenous people’s fortune.

The liberals returned to power in the 1870s. Barrios strode toward modernization. Manwel Estrada ruled from 1898 to 1920 and brought technical progress. He spent extravagantly to beef up the armed forces.

In the decades of 60 and 70, there was a development in sindustry.But there was also slums and urban sprawl. There was a severe earthquake in 1976 killing about 22000 people and people did not get aid that was sent for them. General Efrain Rios Montt came to power by a coup in 1982.Many people were killed in the name of anti-insurgency, stabilization and anticommunism. In 1983, Montt was deposed by General Oscur Humberto Mejia Victores but the abuscs continued. At last with the help of US,there was election in Guatemala and a civilian president got the power in 1986.

President Jorge Serrano became The president in 1990. but massacres and other human-rights abuscs continued during this period. His mainly depended on the army for support. Ramiro de leon Carpio was elected president in 1993.Alvaro Arzu, elected successor of Leon, took office in 1996.

Justice and democracy which was the single most notorious and tragic flouting of peace, came in 1998 when Bishop Juan Gerardi was beaten to death outside his home . Alfonso Portillo won in the 1999 presidential elections. Portillo was just a front man for experiment Rios Montt. President Portillo paid $8 million in compensation in 201 to the families of 226 men, women tend children who were killed in 1982. UN representative  for indigenous

Peoples reported in 202 that 60% of Guatemalan Maya were sill marginalized. International organizations started criticize the state of human rights in Guatemala. There were lawlessness and violent crime in this country. The national anticorruption prosecutor , Karun Fischer fled the country in the face of threats which she received during investigation of Panamanian bank accounts allegedly opened for  president Portillo.
Guatemala at a glance:

Population:

Total  population is 15,438,384 (Census,2013)

Currency:

 The name of the currency of Guatemala is Quetzal (GTQ)

Language: Spanish

Capital City: Guatemala City

Largest City: Guatemala City

Demonym : Guatemalan

Anthem: " Himno Nacional de Guatemala"

Government : Unitary presidential constitutional republic

Calling Code : +502

Time Zone: 
               CST(UTC -6)