Guatemala



- Guatemala gained independence from Spanish Colonial rule in 1821. The country is located just south of Mexico and to the left of Belize and is correctly known as the Republic of Guatemala.

- Guatemala has an area of about 108,890 sq km (making it slighly smaller than the State of Tennessee). A population of about 14 million gives Guatemala a population density of about 128 people per square km (making Guatemala is one of the most densly populated countries in the world). Its population is greater than that of Switzerland and Israel combined and just for the sake of comparison - Tennessee has a population density of about 53 people per sq km.

- The median age is just 18 and the life expectancy at birth is just 65-years. The literacy rate is only about 71%. The per capita GDP is just $3,900 and 75% of the country is below the poverty line (for comparison Chad, Liberia and Haiti have populations where 80% are below the poverty line).

- The government of Guatemala is headed by a President and the people are represented by a unicameral Congress of the Republic (which has 140 representatives elected directly by the people for terms of 4-years).

- The "official" economy of Guatemala is mostly agricultural with coffee sugar and banannas as the main products. Approximately 50% of the labor force works in agriculture with just 15% in services/tourism (even though Guatemala is almost 5 times as big as neighbor Belize - they only have 4 more km of coastline).

- Drugs are a problem in Guatemala (like most countries south of the US). When you factor in the overpopulation, the poverty, the fact that the country is prone to major earthquakes and that drug money has made crime and corruption rampant - Guatemala doesn't seem like the ideal vacation spot.

- Here's a bit of an eye-opener from Freedom House - "Late in the year, the government of President Alfonso Portillo signed an agreement to provide $400 million in compensation to the victims of the nation's 36-year civil war during which more than 200,000 died and over 200 mostly indigenous villages were destroyed. The National Compensation Program is a result of the 1996 UN-brokered peace accords and the ensuing truth commission. A senior military officer was convicted in the murder trial of human rights advocate Myrna Mack in 1990; the acquittal of two other general officers was challenged. While the civil war is over, assassinations, kidnappings, beatings, break-ins, and death threats are still common. Death squads have reappeared and hundreds of street children continue to be murdered or mutilated. President Portillo has admitted that clandestine groups with military ties exist, but claims to be powerless to combat them. Guatemala's governance problems are on the rise as corruption and lawlessness increase with impunity."