National Flag
Full country name: The Republic of Guatemala (República de Guatemala)
Area: 42,042 sq mi (108,890 sq km)
Population: 13,909,384
Capital: Guatemala City.
People: Mestizo—mixed Amerindian-Spanish ancestry (in local Spanish
called Ladino) 56%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 44%.
Languages: Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (more than 20 Amerindian
languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca)
Religion: Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan beliefs.
Government: constitutional democratic republic
President: Alfonso Portillo Cabrera (2000)
GDP per head: US$48.3 billion (2001 est.)
Annual growth: 2.3% (2001 est.)
Inflation: 7.6% (2001)
Major industries: sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals,
petroleum, metals, rubber, tourism
Major trading partners: U.S., El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Germany,
Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela.
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, liberal-democratic coalitions led by Juan José Arévalo (1945–51) and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán (1951–54) 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 the country was plunged into a 36-year civil war between military governments and leftist rebels. Death squads murdered an estimated 50,000 leftists and political opponents during the 1970s. The U.S. ended military aid in 1978.
After several other military governments, civilian Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo 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 de Leon Carpio, the former attorney general for human rights. A peace agreement was signed in Dec. 1996, ending the longest civil war in Latin American history, which had left some 200,000 dead. In June 1997, the new president Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen and the guerrilla movement leader Ricardo Ramirez received the UNESCO Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize.
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 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.
The agricultural sector accounts for about one-fourth of GDP, two-thirds of exports, and half of the labor force. Coffee, sugar, and bananas are the main products. Former President ARZU (1996-2000) worked to implement a program of economic liberalization and political modernization. The 1996 signing of the peace accords, which ended 36 years of civil war, removed a major obstacle to foreign investment. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused relatively little damage to Guatemala compared to its neighbors. Ongoing challenges include increasing government revenues, negotiating further assistance from international donors, and increasing the efficiency and openness of both government and private financial operations. Despite low international prices for Guatemala's main commodities, the economy grew by 3% in 2000 and 2.3% in 2001. Guatemala, along with Honduras and El Salvador, recently concluded a free trade agreement with Mexico and has moved to protect international property rights. However, the PORTILLO administration has undertaken a review of privatizations under the previous administration, thereby creating some uncertainty among investors.
The contrast between the modern ways of Guatemala City, the center of Guatemalan cultural activity, and the traditional customs and crafts of the Maya peoples gives Guatemala a colorful and dynamic culture. Spanish colonists gave Guatemala its official language and many architectural and art treasures. Magnificent buildings of the colonial period remain at Antigua Guatemala, the colonial capital, located about 40 km (about 25 mi) from Guatemala City. Contemporary crafts such as weaving, jewelry making, and ceramics combine indigenous design and color patterns with Spanish technical skills. Throughout Guatemala, the marimba remains the typical Guatemalan musical medium, although it is often challenged now by Mexican ranchera music and North American rock.
Guatemala’s literary heritage includes the 16th-century Popol Vuh, a Maya account of the creation and history of the world. Among 20th-century Guatemalan artists of international repute are writers Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Rafael Arévalo Martínez, Mario Monteforte Toledo, and Miguel Ángel Asturias, winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in literature. Twentieth-century painters Carlos Mérida, Alfredo Gálvez Suárez, and Valentín Abascal, among many others, have been inspired by the indigenous heritage of their nation, while a whole community of primitive painters at Comalapa has achieved international recognition. A number of Guatemalan social scientists have been recognized for their work in exile during times of conflict and repression in their own country. These include sociologist Edelberto Torres Rivas, historian Julio Castellano Cambranes, and author Victor Perera. A notable Guatemalan composer is José Castañeda, while Dieter Lehnhoff has done much to preserve the musical heritage of colonial and modern Guatemala.
Guatemala City is home to many of the nation’s libraries and museums, including the National Archives, the National Library, and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which has an excellent collection of Maya artifacts. The Colonial Museum, in Antigua Guatemala, has large exhibits of colonial artwork.
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The “Line of Adjacency,” established as an agreed limit in 2000
to check squatters settling in Belize, remains in place while OAS assists states
to resolve Guatemalan territorial claims in Belize and Guatemalan maritime access
to the Caribbean Sea.