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The Republic of Guatemala is a country in
Central America, in the south of the continent
of North America, situated between the Pacific
Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is bordered by
Mexico to the north, Belize to the northeast,
and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast.
History
Main article: History of Guatemala
From the 3rd century BC to the 11th century AD,
the lowlands area of the Petén and Izabal
regions of Guatemala were several indigenous
states on the central highlands. Alta Verapaz is
known for the fact that, after failing to
conquer it by the sword the Spanish entered by
the Church, with missionaries who defended the
Indians from the cruel treatments of the Spanish
army. Many Pre-Columbian Mayan books were lost
due to the policy of the Spaniards during the
colonial period of burning them. However,
several survive, including: The "Popol Vuh", "Anales
de los Kakchiqueles", and "Chilam Balam", books
that were discovered and preserved by Spanish
missionary friars. The name "Goathemala" was
given by the Spanish conquistadores to this
land, which derives from indigenous words that
mean "Land of many trees".
During the Spanish colonial period, Guatemala
was a Captaincy General (Capitania General de
Goathemala) of Spain. It extended from the
Soconusco region - located in what is now the
southern part of Mexico (states of Chiapas,
Tabasco, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan) - to Costa
Rica. From a political point of view, this
region was not as rich in mineral resources
(gold and silver) as Mexico and Peru were.
Therefore, it did not have the same importance
as those two Viceroyalties had. Its main
products were sugarcane, cocoa, and anil (dye
obtained from indigo plant to dye textiles).
Tired of being forced to trade exclusively with
Spain, the Guatemalan elite declared
independence of Spain in September 15, 1821. At
that time, the Guatemalan Republic included the
Soconusco region, as well as what are now the
countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica. Such a big country had a mere
1.5 million habitants, mostly concentrated on
the urban centers of the young Republic.
However, in 1822, the province of El Salvador
convinced the other Guatemalan provinces to join
the Mexican Empire, an idea created by Agustin
Iturbide. This Empire was short-lived, however,
and a year later Guatemala separated itself from
Mexico after Iturbide was forced to abdicate and
his empire collapsed. As a result of this
annexation, Guatemala lost the Soconusco region,
which is now part of Mexico. After this, the
Guatemalan provinces formed the United Provinces
of Central America, also referred to as the
Central American Federation (Federacion de
Estados Centroamericanos). The Capital City
remained Guatemala City, which to this day
continues to be the biggest and most modern
urban center in the entire Central American
region.
A politically unstable period followed,
aggravated by the collapse of the world market
for añil (indigo), main export product from the
region to Europe. This resulted in each province
separating itself from the Federation, beginning
with the province of Costa Rica. This
confederation fell apart in 1838 to 1840, and
Guatemala became an independent nation.
Guatemala has long claimed all or part of the
territory of neighboring Belize, which used to
be part of the Guatemalan Republic since
Colonial times. However, Great Britain occupied
this territory, and Belize remains
English-speaking to this day. While Guatemala
recognized Belize's independence in 1991, the
territorial dispute between them has not yet
been finalized. Negotiations are currently
underway under the auspices of the Organization
of American States to conclude the dispute. For
details, see: [1], and the OAS page [2].
Guatemalan history has been marked by the
scenario of the Cold War between the USA and the
USSR. The Central Intelligence Agency, supported
by a small group of Guatemalan citizens,
orchestrated the overthrow of the democratic
socialist Guatemalan government in 1954. This
was known as Operation PBSUCCESS and led to over
thirty years of unrest in the nation in which
over 100,000 Guatemalans were killed, mostly
indigenous Mayan Indians, more than 450 Mayan
villages were destroyed, and over one million
people became refugees. This is alleged to be
one of the worst ethnic cleansings in modern
times. Contributing reasons include US support
of every successive, non-democratic government
in Guatemala. From the 1950s until the 1990s,
the U.S. directly supported Guatemala's army by
supplying it with combatant training, weaponry,
and money. The U.S. sent the Green Berets to
Guatemala to transform its Army into a "modern
counter-insurgency force," making their army the
most powerful and sophisticated in Central
America.
Further involvement of the CIA in Guatemala
included the training of 5,000 anti-Castro
Cubans for what would become the failed Bay of
Pigs Invasion.
1996 marked the end of a bloody 36-year war with
the guerrilla Guatemalan National Revolutionary
Unity (URNG). The signing of the peace treaty
was orchestrated by the government of
democratically elected President Alvaro Arzu.
Since then, the country has enjoyed successive
democractic elections, most recently in 2003.
However, corruption is still rampant throughout
all levels of government. A huge cache of
National Police files discovered in December of
2005 revealed methods of public security
officials to quell unrest of citizens during the
civil war [3].
Militarily, the Guatemalan army defeated the
URNG. However, due to staunch political support
from the governments of Spain, France, and
Sweden, the URNG was able to continue with its
activities. in 1992, the Nobel Peace Prize was
awarded to Rigoberta Menchu, an ex-URNG member.
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