Guatemala lies in Central-America, between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea on approximately 14 degrees north of the equator. An enormously diverse landscape invites the visitor on its 108'000 square kilometers. The Pacific coast with its black sand beaches is the home of huge sugarcane and coffee plantations, last ones on the slopes of the volcanoes. More than 30 volcanoes offer breathtaking landscapes views, especially the three active volcanoes Santiagito, Fuego and Pacaya. The volcano Tajamulco with 4'227 meters above sea level is the highest point of Central-America. The Sierra of the Cuchumatanes with over an average over 3’000 meters altitude is the highest inhabited region and turns into the Sierra de las Minas, filled with spectacular limestone caves underneath the humid, often foggy and rainy forest.
Towards the east altitude falls quickly down to sea level. The semi-dry Motagua Valley leads to the Caribbean Sea or towards the hilly South-East. The Caribbean coast of Guatemala is relatively short, with one big port. Its attractions are the unique waterways of the Rio Dulce National Park and Lake Izabal.
Going north we find the Petén, tropical limestone soil, covered by Rainforest, the second largest green lung of America after the Amazon. Here we also find a huge variety of flora and fauna.
Population
Approximately 12 million people live in Guatemala, 75% of
them on one third of the country’s surface in the highlands including the
capital, Guatemala City. Guatemala is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic
country. Approximately half of the population speaks one of over 20 spoken
Mayan languages, the so called Indigenous people. Ladinos or Mestizos are
the second largest ethnic, , purely Spanish speaking persons with Spanish
and Mayan forefathers. A small minority, the Garifuna, established
themselves about 200 years ago along the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. Only
few persons still speak Xinca and live in the southern part of the
country.
According to UN statistics, two third of the population lives in poverty, one fifth even in extreme poverty, that means less than $ 1.- income per day. Indigenous not only live mainly in the countryside which causes bad access to education and health services, they also suffer from a discrimination by the ruling Ladinos. The reason as well as the possible solutions are complex. The rate of Analphabetism in Guatemala is the second highest in America after Haiti and the discrepancy between rich and poor is only outraged by Brasil in Latin America.
This all makes Guatemala a highly complex and interesting country and society, but reality often is only hardly understandable and acceptable.
Politics
Since 1821, Guatemala is independent from Spain
and since 1847 a sovereign Republic. As one of the so called
Banana-Republic, the north American United Fruit Company influenced on local
politicians so strong that they dominated them during the first half of the
20th Century. A revolution on the 20th October 1944
led to the first democratic government of Guatemala under Juan José
Arévalo. His successor
Jacobo Arbenz reformed so many laws, that he was thrown out of office in a
coups-d’état
in 1954 supplied by the CIA. The country fell back to military
dictatorships.
On November 13th 1960 the government stroke down another internal coup attempt, what marks the beginning of the 36 years of internal armed conflict. Particularly during the seventies and eighties massacres and paramilitary groups fought not only the different guerilla groups but involved more and more innocent civilians, especially Indigenous communities. Under international pressure a new constitution was introduced in 1985 and a civil government reinstalled one year later. On December 29th 1996 the last part of the Peace Accord were signed.
Today Guatemala is the country with most political parties in America, they vanishe as quickly as they appear. The culture of the "forefinger", which means that all official employees are chosen disregarding their professional qualifications makes a democratic development difficult. Right-Liberal President Oscar Berger is in office since January 2004.
Economy
Agriculture is by far the biggest activity of the country. Imagine that only
coffee harvest employs 10 percent of the population during its four month
activity. Banana and sugarcane are the most important export-products apart
from coffee. A feudalism introduced by the Spaniards after conquest still
is the source of the difference between the wealthy landowners and the big
part of Guatemalans depending on labor on these plantations.
Services: This sector is concentrated mainly on the capital. Tourism is with over one million visitors the second-most important source of money in in the country. Unfortunately the national Tourism-Institution is a political organization, what makes it a puppet of the government instead of representing the sectors private industry. There is little industry in Guatemala, apart from huge textile factories dominated by Korean companies.
Remesas: By Remesas, we understand the money sent home by the 1.2 million Guatemalans that live in the United States. Almost half of the population profits or requires this monetary source.
Taxes: We speak more of Tax-Inexistence than Tax-Fraud. Only about 5% of all possible taxes are paid. 75% of all taxes paid come from the 300 biggest companies of the country. 40% of the total-fund on Guatemalan banks lie on 0.01% of the existing accounts. Guatemala is not a poor country, but its population is.
Who are the Maya?
It is commonly accepted that the American Continent was populated by Asian people crossing over from Siberia to Alaska some 20'000 years ago or more. Around 3000 B.C., the Olmec created the first civilization, made possible by the cultivation of corn and so said good bye to the nomad life. . Part of their culture that consisted in Calendar, Pantheon, agriculture and a highly organized society passed on to other Mesoamerican cultures. The Maya are one of these. We speak today of about 3000 years of ancient Maya culture, starting 1500 BC and ending around 1500 AD with the Spanish conquest. In middle of the second century archaeologists divided this era into three periods, based on the evidence known at that time. Today we know that the classic should start some 300 to 500 years earlier.
Pre-Classic, 1500 BC - 250 AD .
1500 years are a very long time and its difficult to describe in a short way all the amazing things that happened, as well as to decide which ones are more important. There is certainly the rise of a organized society, with a God-King at its head, followed by priest, warriors, artist, farmer and slaves. The first big cities grow, El Mirador actually contains the biggest so far known building complex on platforms as big as two football fields.
Most of the site dating from this time are situated along the Pacific coast. There are the sites of Takalik Abaj, El Baul or La Democracia.
Classic, 250 – 900AD.
All big and especially worth seeing Mayan sites in Guatemala date from this time. The monumental archidecture, the refinement of the ceramic production and the formation of a complex logo syllable language form the climax of the Maya culture. It was no until the 1980 that Mayanist finally agreed that these people were not the peacefully in harmony living folks they thought of, but their history was full of war, slave capturing and sacrifices. Tikal, Ceibal, Yaxhá and Quiriguá are the most interesting sites in Guatemala.
Around the 8th Century AD the culture collapses and the huge ceremonial centers are abandoned. We still don’t know the exact reason, but the collapse started for sure in the region of Dos Pilas and Ceibal, may due to a new type of War, the War of destruction. Others say that there was a political and social revolution which led to chaos, the collapse of Teotihuacán as an important trade partner, three dry-periods over various years or the overpopulation were the reason of all this. The exact truth is still unknown, but the Mayan sites are for sure some of the best places to visit in America.
Post-Classic, 900 - 1500 AD
A life in new conditions with new cultural influences led to reestablishments with main focus on the Yucatan peninsula. But also in the Guatemalan highland new centers are built, e.g. the Quiche Mayan dominate one third of the modern state Guatemala. They built their sites on spots that were easy to defend, what shows us the high war activity during that time. Examples are Zaculeu, Utatlán or Iximché.
Colonial-time, 1500 - 1821
The Spaniards caused by massacres and diseases that only about 20% of the native population survived the first 80 years after the conquest. Sources speak of a population of half a million people all over Central America around 1700, the 4000 Spaniards dominating them. That Maya formed the working people, only slowly populations recovered. All documents, as valuable books (Codices) created by the Maya were burned and the Mayan were converted to Christians by Franciscan and Dominican monks.
That Maya today
Over half of the Guatemalan population belong to one the 21 Mayan ethnic. Nevertheless their culture is under attack, due to discrimination lots of Mayan try to hide their roots and become Ladinos, in order to have better job opportunities and higher acceptance. This includes the denying for traditional clothes and getting their children to speak only Spanish.
However there are still lots of Mayan Priest in the Highlands and in some churches syncretism is very much present, the mix of Christian and Mayan believes. The Indigenous suffer from a discrimination, that is documented by following data,: 16 of 158 congresspersons are Mayan, there is no minister of the Maya at this time is, 80% of the Mayan women are writing-ignorant, 80% of the population or more living in poverty are Mayan and only two of five Maya-children benefit medical care before, during or after birth. The government officially promotes the Maya culture, there is a Maya University a Maya TV-Channel is supposed to gon on air some time in the future. Bilingual education is promoted, however the worlds of the Ladinos and the Indigenous are so different that it will take ages equality and equal opportunity.
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