The 'Republic of Guatemala' (, ), is a country in
Central America bordered by
Mexico to the northwest, the
Pacific Ocean to the southwest,
Belize and the
Caribbean Sea to the northeast, and
Honduras and
El Salvador to the southeast.
The most populous nation in Central America, Guatemala is a
representative democracy with its capital at
Guatemala City. Although the nation has been relatively stable since 1996, Guatemala's recent history has been plagued by civil war and military coups, which have slowed the nation's development. Large portions of Guatemala's interior remain wholly undeveloped, including the nation's many
rainforests and
wetlands. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to
Mesoamerica's designation as an important
biodiversity hotspot.
[1]
Etymology
The country name comes from the
Nahuatl ''Cuauhtēmallān'', "place of many trees", a translation of
K'iche' Mayan ''K’ii’chee’'', "many trees" (that is, "forest").
[2]
History
Main articles: History of Guatemala
'' "El Tigre Complex",in El Mirador''
Pre-Colombian
The first proof of human settlers in Guatemala goes back to 10,000 BC, although there is some evidence that puts this date at 18,000 BC, such as obsidian arrow heads found in various parts of the country.
[3] There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan settlers were hunters and gatherers, but pollen samples from
Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that
maize cultivation was developed by 3500 BC.
[4] Archaic sites have been documented in
Quiché in the Highlands and
Sipacate,
Escuintla on the central Pacific coast (6500 BC).
Archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian history of
Mesoamerica into 3 periods: The Pre-Classic from 2000 BC to 250 AD, the Classic from 250 to 900 AD, and the Post-Classic from 900 to 1500 AD.
[5] Until recently, the Pre-Classic was regarded as a formative period, with small villages of farmers who lived in huts, and few permanent buildings, but this notion has been challenged by recent discoveries of monumental architecture from that period, such as an altar in
La Blanca,
San Marcos, some 3 mt. in diameter from 1000 BC; ceremonial sites at Miraflores and El Naranjo from 800 BC; the earliest monumental masks; and the
Mirador Basin cities of
Nakbé, Xulnal, Tintal, Wakná and
El Mirador.
''Nakbé, Mid Preclassic palace remains, Mirador Basin, Petén, Guatemala''
El Mirador was by far the most populated city in the pre-Columbian America, and contained the largest pyramid in the world, at 2,800,000 cubic meters in volume (some 200,000 more than the
Great Pyramid of Giza in
Egypt). Mirador was the first politically organized state in America, named the Kan Kingdom in ancient texts. There were 26 cities, all connected by Sacbeob (highways), which were several kilometers long, up to 40 meters wide, and 2 to 4 meters above the ground, paved with
stucco, that are clearly distinguishable from the air in the most extensive virgin tropical rain forest in Mesoamerica.
The Classic period of
Mesoamerican civilization corresponds to the height of the
Maya civilization, and is represented by countless sites throughout Guatemala, although the largest concentration is in
Petén. This period is characterized by heavy city-building, the development of independent city-states, and contact with other Mesoamerican cultures.
This lasted until around 900 AD, when, for reasons not understood by archaeologists, the Maya went into decline, and abandoned many of the cities of the central lowlands. The Post-Classic period is represented by regional kingdoms such as the Itzá and Ko'woj in the Lakes area in Petén, and the Mam, Ki'ch'es, Kack'chiquel, Tz'utuh'il, Pokom'chí, Kek'chi and Chortí in the Highlands. These cities preserved many aspects of Mayan culture, but would never equal the size or power of the Classic cities.
Colonial
After arriving in what they named the
New World, the Spanish mounted several peaceful expeditions to Guatemala, beginning in 1518. Before long, Spanish contact resulted in an
epidemic that devastated native populations (believed to be
Viruela,
Spanish smallpox, based on the description in the "
Memorial de Sololá").
Hernán Cortés, who had led the
Spanish conquest of Mexico, granted a permit to Captains Gonzalo de Alvarado and his brother,
Pedro de Alvarado, to conquer this land. Alvarado at first allied himself with the
Cakchiquel nation to fight against their traditional rivals the
Quiché nation. Alvarado later turned against the Cakchiquels, and eventually held the entire region under Spanish domination.
During the colonial period, Guatemala was a
Captaincy General (Capitanía General de Guatemala) of
Spain, and a part of
New Spain (Mexico). It extended from the modern Mexican states of
Tabasco and
Chiapas (including the then separate administration of
Soconusco) to
Costa Rica. This region was not as rich in minerals (gold and silver) as Mexico and
Peru, and was therefore not considered to be as important. Its main products were
sugarcane,
cocoa, blue
añil dye, red dye from
cochineal insects, and precious woods used in artwork for churches and palaces in Spain.
The first Capital was named
Tecpan Guatemala, founded in
July 25 1524 with the name of (Villa de Santiago de Guatemala) and was located near
Iximché, the Cakchiquel's capital city, It was moved to
Ciudad Vieja on
November 22 1527, when the Cakchiquel attacked the city. On
September 11 1541 the city was flooded when the lagoon in the
crater of the
Agua Volcano collapsed due to heavy rains and earthquakes, and was moved to
Antigua Guatemala, on the Panchoy Valley, now a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. This City was destroyed by several earthquakes in 1773-1774, and the King of
Spain, granted the authorization to move the
Captaincy General, to the Ermita Valley, named after a Catholic Church to the Virgen de El Carmen, in its current location, founded in
January 2 1776.
Independence and 19th century
On
September 15,
1821, Guatemala declared itself independent from Spain.
On
October 3 1821, the Captaincy-General of Guatemala, (formed by Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras) officially proclaimed its independence from Spain and its incorporation into the
Mexican Empire. This region had been formally subject to New Spain throughout the colonial period, but as a practical matter was administered separately. All but Chiapas soon separated from Mexico after Agustín I from Mexico was forced to abdicate.
The Guatemalan provinces formed the
United Provinces of Central America, also called the Central American Federation (Federacion de Estados Centroamericanos). That federation dissolved in civil war from 1838 to 1840 (''See:''
History of Central America). Guatemala's
Rafael Carrera was instrumental in leading the revolt against the federal government and breaking apart the Union. Carrera dominated Guatemalan politics until 1865, backed by conservatives, large land owners and the church.
Guatemala's "Liberal Revolution" came in 1871 under the leadership of
Justo Rufino Barrios, who worked to modernize the country, improve trade, and introduce new crops and manufacturing. During this era
coffee became an important crop for Guatemala. Barrios had ambitions of reuniting Central America and took the country to war in an unsuccessful attempt to attain this, losing his life on the battlefield in 1885 against forces in El Salvador.
1944 to Present
On
July 4,
1944, Dictator
Jorge Ubico Castañeda was forced to resign his office in response to a wave of protests and a
general strike. His replacement, General
Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, was forced out of office on
October 20,
1944 by a
coup d'état led by Major
Francisco Javier Arana and Captain
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. About 100 people were killed in the coup. The country was led by a
military junta made up of Arana, Arbenz, and
Jorge Toriello Garrido. The Junta called Guatemala's first free election, which was won with a majority of 85 percent ("85 percent" that seems to cast doubt on claims that the election was free and fair) by the prominent writer and teacher
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, who had lived in exile in Argentina for 14 years. Arévalo was the first democratically elected president of Guatemala to fully complete the term for which he was elected. His "Christian Socialist" policies, inspired by the U.S.
New Deal, were criticized by landowners and the upper class as "communist."
This period was also the beginning of the
Cold War between the
U.S. and the
USSR, which was to have a considerable influence on Guatemalan history. From the 1950s through the 1990s, the U.S. government directly supported Guatemala's army with training, weapons, and money. Actually there were American sactions during some periods (due to claims of human rights abuses),sanctions which forced the Guatemalan government to buy arms from other sources.
In 1954, Arévalo's freely elected Guatemalan successor,
Jacobo Arbenz, was overthrown by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a small group of Guatemalans (landowners, the old military caste, and the Catholic Church), after the government instituted decree No. 900, which expropriated large tracts of land owned by the
United Fruit Company, a U.S.-based banana merchant (Chiquita Banana). The CIA codename for the coup was
Operation PBSUCCESS (it was the CIA's second successful overthrow of a foreign government after the 1953
coup in Iran). Colonel
Carlos Castillo Armas was installed as president in 1954 and ruled until he was assassinated by a member of his personal guard in 1957.
In the election that followed, General
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes assumed power. He is most celebrated for challenging the Mexican president to a gentleman’s duel on the bridge on the south border to end a feud on the subject of illegal fishing by Mexican boats on Guatemala's Pacific coast, two of which were sunk by the Guatemalan Air Force. Ydigoras authorized the training of 5,000 anti-
Castro Cubans in Guatemala. He also provided airstrips in the region of
Petén for what later became the failed
Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. Ydigoras' government was ousted in 1963 when the Air Force attacked several military bases. The coup was led by his Defense Minister, Colonel
Enrique Peralta Azurdia.
In 1966,
Julio César Méndez Montenegro was elected president of Guatemala under the banner "Democratic Opening." Mendez Montenegro was the candidate of the Revolutionary Party, a center-left party which had its origins in the post-Ubico era. It was during this time that rightist
paramilitary organizations, such as the "White Hand" (
Mano Blanca), and the Anticommunist Secret Army, (Ejército Secreto Anticomunista), were formed. Those organizations were the forerunners of the infamous "
Death Squads." Military advisers of The
United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets) were sent to Guatemala to train troops and help transform its army into a modern counter-insurgency force, which eventually made it the most sophisticated in Central America.
In 1970, Colonel
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio was elected president. A new guerrilla movement entered the country from Mexico, into the Western Highlands in 1972. In the
disputed election of 1974, General
Kjell Lauguerud García defeated General
Efraín Ríos Montt, a candidate of the Christian Democratic Party, who claimed that he had been cheated out of a victory through fraud. On
February 4,
1976, a major earthquake destroyed several cities and caused more than 25,000 deaths. In 1978, in a fraudulent election, General
Romeo Lucas García assumed power. The 1970s saw the birth of two new guerrilla organizations, The Poor Guerrilla Army (EGP) and the Organization of the Peoples in Arms (ORPA), who began and intensified by the end of the seventies, guerrilla attacks that included urban and rural guerrilla warfare, mainly against the military and some of the civilian supporters of the army. In 1979, the United States president,
Jimmy Carter, ordered a ban on all military aid to the Guatemalan Army because of the widespread and systematic abuse of human rights. Almost immediately, the Israeli Government took over supplying the Guatemalan Army with advisors, weapons and other military supplies.
In 1980, a group of Quiché Indians took over the Spanish Embassy to protest army massacres in the countryside. The Guatemalan government launched an assault that killed almost everyone inside as a result of a fire that consumed the building. The Guatemalan government claimed that the activists set the fire and immolated themselves. However, the Spanish ambassador, who survived the fire, disputed this claim, noting that the Guatemalan police intentionally killed almost everyone inside and set the fire to erase traces of their acts. As a result of this incident, the government of Spain broke diplomatic relations with Guatemala. This government was overthrown in 1982. General
Efraín Ríos Montt was named President of the military junta, continuing the bloody campaign of torture, disappearances, and "
scorched earth" warfare. The country became a
pariah state internationally. Ríos Montt was overthrown by General
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, who called for an election of a national constitutional assembly to write a new constitution, leading to a free election in 1986, which was won by
Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo, the candidate of the Christian Democracy Party.
In 1982, the four Guerrilla groups, EGP, ORPA, FAR and PGT, merged and formed the
URNG, influenced by the
Salvadoran guerrilla
FMLN, the
Nicaraguan
FSLN and
Cuba's Government, in order to become stronger. As a result of the Army's "
scorched earth" tactics in the countryside, more than 45,000 Guatemalans fled across the border to
Mexico. The Mexican government placed the refugees in camps in
Chiapas and
Tabasco.
In 1992, the
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to
Rigoberta Menchú for her efforts to bring international attention to the government-sponsored
genocide against the indigenous population.
The bloody 35-year old war of repression ended in 1996 with a peace accord between the guerrillas and the government of President
Álvaro Arzú, negotiated by the
United Nations through intense brokerage by nations such as Norway and Spain. Both sides made major concessions. The guerrilla fighters disarmed and received land to work. According to the U.N.-sponsored
truth commission (styled the "
Commission for Historical Clarification"), government forces and state-sponsored paramilitaries were responsible for over 93% of the human rights violations during the war.
[ Conclusions: Human rights violations, acts of violence and assignment of responsibility ]
During the first 10 years, the victims of the state-sponsored terror were primarily students, workers, professionals, and opposition figures, but in the last years they were thousands of mostly rural Mayan farmers and non-combatants. More than 450 Mayan villages were destroyed and over 1 million people became internal and external refugees. In certain areas, such as
Baja Verapaz, the Truth Commission considered that the Guatemalan state engaged in an intentional policy of
genocide against particular ethnic groups in the
Civil War.
[ Conclusions: Human rights violations, acts of violence and assignment of responsibility ]
In 1999, U.S. president
Bill Clinton stated that the United States was wrong to have provided support to Guatemalan military forces that took part in the brutal civilian killings.
[ Clinton: Support for Guatemala Was Wrong ]
Since the peace accords, Guatemala has witnessed successive democratic elections, most recently in 2003. The current government has signed free trade agreements with the United States and the rest of Central America through
CAFTA, and other agreements with Mexico, and Panama.
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Guatemala
Guatemalan politics take place in a framework of a
presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the
President of Guatemala is both
head of state and
head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.
Executive power is exercised by the government.
Legislative power is vested in both the
government and the
Congress of the Republic. The
Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Foreign Relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of Guatemala
Departments and municipalities
Main articles: Departments of Guatemala,
Municipalities of Guatemala
Departments of Guatemala
Guatemala is divided into 22
departments (''departamentos'') and sub-divided into about 332
municipalities (''municipios'').
The
departments include:
Guatemala is heavily centralized. Transportation, communications, business, politics, and most relevant urban activity takes place in
Guatemala City.
Guatemala City has about 2 million inhabitants within the city limits and more than 5 million within in the urban area. This is a significant percentage of the population (12 million).
Geography
Main articles: Geography of Guatemala
Map of Guatemala
Guatemala is mountainous, except for the south coastal area and the vast northern lowlands of
Petén department. Two mountain chains enter Guatemala from west to east, dividing the country into three major regions: the highlands, where the mountains are located; the Pacific coast, south of the mountains; and the Petén region, north of the mountains. All major cities are located in the highlands and Pacific coast regions; by comparison, Petén is sparsely populated. These three regions vary in climate, elevation, and landscape, providing dramatic contrasts between hot and humid tropical lowlands and colder and drier highland peaks.
Volcán Tajumulco, at 4,220 meters, is the highest point in Central America.
''Guatemala Highlands''
The rivers are short and shallow in the Pacific vertient, larger and deeper, such as the Polochic which drains into Lake Izabal
Río Dulce, (
Motagua) and Sarstún that forms the boundary with
Belize in the
Caribbean and the
Gulf of Mexico vertient (
Usumacinta, which forms the boundary between Chiapas,
Mexico and Petén and its tributaries such as La Pasión and
San Pedro.
Guatemala has long claimed all or part of the territory of neighbouring
Belize, formerly part of the Spanish colony, and currently an independent
Commonwealth Realm which recognises
Queen Elizabeth II as its
Head of State. Guatemala recognized Belize's independence in 1990, but their territorial dispute is not resolved. Negotiations are currently underway under the auspices of the
Organization of American States and the
Commonwealth of Nations to conclude it.
[6][7]
Natural disasters
Guatemala's location on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean makes it a target for
hurricanes, such as
Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and
Hurricane Stan in October of 2005, which killed more than 1,500 people. The damage was not wind related, but rather due to significant flooding.
Guatemala's highlands lie atop the boundary between the
Caribbean and
North American tectonic plates, and thus are subject to frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. Guatemala has 37 volcanoes, four of them active:
Pacaya,
Santiaguito,
Fuego and
Tacaná. The last major earthquake was on
February 4 1976, killing more than 25,000 in the Central Highlands.
On June 13, 2007 a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake hit Guatemala at 3:29pm New York Time (1:29pm Guatemalan Time). There were no reports of death or major damage. It only lasted for 30 seconds and this was the second time that an earthquake happened in a week; the last time was June 8, which was a 5.9 Magnitude.
Biodiversity
The country has 14 ecoregions ranging from Mangrove forests, to both ocean littorals with 5 different ecosystems. Guatemala has an endemic ''
Abies guatemalensis'') species. Guatemala has 252 listed wetlands, including 5 lakes, 61 lagoons. 100 rivers, 3 swamps, 6 of those
wetlands are of international importance or
RAMSAR sites.
Tikal National Park, was the first mixed
UNESCO World Heritage Site. Guatemala is a country of distinct
fauna. It has some 1246 known species. Of these, 6.7% are
endemic and 8.1% are threatened. Guatemala is home to at least 8681 species of vascular plants, of which 13.5% are endemic. 5.4% of Guatemala is protected under IUCN categories I-V. Guatemala has the largest percentage of Protected areas in
Central America, with a total of 91 protected areas, more than 28% of the countries territory. .
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of Guatemala
According to the CIA
World Fact Book,
Ladinos(45%) and people of European descent (15%) (primarily of
Spanish, but also those of
German,
English,
Italian, and
Scandinavian descent) comprise 60% of the population while Amerindians comprise approximately 40% (
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%)
[2]. Other
ladino ethnic groups include the
Garifuna who are descended from African slaves and live mainly in Livingston and
Puerto Barrios, and other blacks and
mulattos which account for 1-2% of the population; Arabs of
Lebanese and
Syrian descent, and Asians, mostly of
Chinese descent, compromise around 3% of the population
[3]. There is also a growing
Korean community in Guatemala City and in nearby
Mixco, currently numbering about 50,000.
In 1900, Guatemala had a population of 885,000
[4]. Over the course of the twentieth century the population of the country grew, the fastest growth in the Western Hemisphere. The ever-increasing pattern of emigration to the
United States has led to the growth of Guatemalan communities in
California,
Florida,
Illinois,
New York,
Texas and elsewhere since the 1970s.
Diaspora
The Civil War forced many Guatemalans to start lives outside of their county. The majority of the Guatemalan
diaspora is located in the United States with estimates ranging from 480,000 to 1 million
[5], followed by Mexico with an estimated 23,529
[6] to 190,000
[7]. The difficulty in getting accurate counts for Guatemalans abroad is because many of them are
refugee claimants awaiting determination of their status
[8]. Below are current statistics for certain countries:
Economy
Main articles: Economy of Guatemala
According to the
CIA World Factbook, Guatemala's GDP per capita is
US$5,000, however, this
developing country still faces many
social issues and is among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America.
[8]
The distribution of income remains highly unequal with approximately 7.1 million (56.2%) of the population below the
poverty line and just over 400,000 (3.2%)
unemployed.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2006 was estimated at $61.38 billion USD. The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 58.7%, followed by the agriculture sector at 22.1% (2006 est.). The industrial sector represents only 19.1% of GDP (2006 est.).
Tourism has become an increasing revenue source for Guatemala. Luxury travel websites, are said to send many adventure seeking travelers to the pyramids of Tikal.
The agricultural sector accounts for about one-fourth of GDP, two-fifths of exports, and half of the labor force.
Coffee,
sugar,
textiles, fresh
vegetables, and
bananas are the country's main exports. Also economically important are
remittances from Guatemalans working abroad. The rate of
inflation was 5.7% in 2006.
The 1996 peace accords that ended the decades-long
Civil War removed a major obstacle to foreign investment.
In March 2005, despite massive street protests, Guatemala's congress ratified the
Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) between several Central American nations and the
United States.
[9] Guatemala also has free trade agreements with
Taiwan and
Colombia.
Remittances from Guatemalans who fled to the United States during the civil war, now constitute the largest single source of foreign income (more than the combined value of exports and tourism).
[10]
Culture
Guatemala City is home to many of the nation’s libraries and museums, including the National Archives, the National Library, and the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, which has an extensive collection of Maya artifacts. There are private museums, such as the Ixchel, which focuses on textiles, and the Popol Vuh, which focuses on Mayan archeology. Both museums are housed inside the
Universidad Francisco Marroquín campus. Almost each of the 329 municipalities in the country has a small museum.
;Literature
The
Guatemala National Prize in Literature is a one-time only award that recognizes an individual writer's body of work. It has been given annually since 1988 by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Miguel Angel Asturias, won the
Literature Nobel Prize in 1966 for the book "El Señor Presidente", a novel based on the government of Manuel Estrada Cabrera.
;Music
The
Music of Guatemala comprises a number of
styles and expressions. The
Maya had an intense musical practice, as is documented by
iconography. Guatemala was also one of the first regions in the New World to be introduced to
European music, from 1524 on. Many composers from the
Renaissance,
baroque,
classical,
romantic, and
contemporary music styles have contributed works of all genres, of very high quality. The
marimba is the national instrument that has developed a large repertoire of very attractive pieces that have been popular for more than a century. The ''Historia General de Guatemala'' has published a series of CDs of historical
Music of Guatemala, in which every style is present, from the Maya, colonial period, independent and republican eras to current times.
Language
Language Map of Guatemala, according to the ''Comisión de Oficialización de los Idiomas Indígenas de Guatemala''. The dark green area represents
Spanish.
Although
Spanish is the official language, it is not universally spoken among the indigenous population, nor is it often spoken as a second language. Twenty-one distinct
Mayan languages are spoken, especially in rural areas, as well as several non-Mayan
Amerindian languages, such as the indigenous
Xinca, and
Garifuna, an
Arawakan language spoken on the Caribbean coast. According to Decreto Número 19-2003, twenty-three languages are recognized as National Languages.
[ Ley de Idiomas Nacionales, Decreto Número 19-2003 ]
The Peace Accords signed in December 1996 provide for the translation of some official documents and voting materials into several indigenous languages (see summary of main substantive accords) and mandate the provision of interpreters in legal cases for non-Spanish speakers. The accord also sanctioned bilingual education in Spanish and indigenous languages. It is common for indigenous Guatemalans to learn or speak between two to five of the nation's other languages, including Spanish.
Religion
Catholic Christianity was the only religion during the colonial era. However, Protestantism has increased markedly in recent decades, especially under the reign of dictator and evangelical pastor General
Efraín Ríos Montt. More than one third of Guatemalans are Protestant, chiefly
Evangelicals and
Pentecostals.
The predominant religion is
Latin Rite Catholicism.
Protestantism and traditional
Mayan religions are practiced by an estimated 40% and 1% of the population, respectively.
[21] It is common for traditional Mayan practices to be incorporated into Christian ceremonies and worship, a phenomenon known as
syncretism.
The practice of traditional
Mayan religion is increasing as a result of the cultural protections established under the peace accords. The government has instituted a policy of providing altars at every Mayan ruin found in the country so that traditional ceremonies may be performed there.
There are also small communities of
Jews (about 1200),
Muslims (1200), and members of other faiths.
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints claims over 205,000 members in Guatemala.
Education
The government runs a number of public elementary and secondary-level schools. These schools are free, though the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, and transportation makes them less accessible to the poorer segments of society. Many middle and upper-class children go to private schools. The country also has one public university (
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala), and 9 private ones (see
List of universities in Guatemala). Only 69.1% of the population aged 15 and over are literate, the lowest literacy rate in Central America.
[11]
See also
★
Communications in Guatemala
★
Transport in Guatemala
★
List of Guatemalans
★
Quetzal (national symbol of Guatemala)
Notes
1. Biodiversity Hotspots-Mesoamerica-Overview
2. Campbell, Lyle (1997). ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 378 n. 10
3. Ancient Guatemala Mary Esquivel de Villalobos
4. Pollen Evidence for Climatic Variability and Cultural Disturbance in the Maya Lowlands Barbara Leyden
5. Chronological Table of Mesoamerican Archaeology
6. OAS Mediates in Belize-Guatemala Border Dispute Montserrat Gorina-Ysern
7. Historia General de Guatemala, , , , , , ISBN 84-88622-07-4
8. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
9. "Guatemala Report 2006: Summary Review" ''Amnesty International'', 2006, retrieved January 26, 2007.
10. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html#Econ
11. LA Literacy Rates
References
★ Historia General de Guatemala, 1999, several authors ISBN 84-88522-07-4.
External links
★
Encyclopaedia Britannica Guatemala - Country Facts Page
★
KCountryProfile&aid=1020262398293 UK Foreign Office Country Profile for Guatemala
★
★
Sitio para la comunidad Guatemalteca - Community page
★
George Washington University -
The Guatemalan Military: What the U.S. Files Reveal
★
Guatemala Hotel
Government
★
Congreso de la República – Congress of the Republic of Guatemala
★
Organismo Judicial de Guatemala Judicial Branch of Guatemala
★
Gobierno de Guatemala Guatemalan Government Page
Pre-Columbian civilizations
★
-- The Mirador Basin Project
★
Guatemala, Cradle of the Maya Civilization
Culture
★
People of Guatemala
★
Guatemalan Literature Webpage
★
People
Human Rights
★
Amnesty International Annual Report 2006 – Guatemala
★
Guatemala Human Rights Commission
★
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
★
''Guatemala: Memory of Silence'' (summarised translation of Truth Commission report)
★
''Guatemala: Memoria del silencio'' (complete Spanish language original of Truth Commission report)
★
Guatemala Human Rights Commission
Other
★
Biodiversity, Ecology and Landscapes Galleries
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