Simple directory > Regional > Guatemala

Country : Guatemala Official name: República de Guatemala (Republic of Guatemala) Head of State: President Óscar Berger Perdomo (GANA) (sworn in 14 Jan 2004) Head of government: President Óscar Berger Perdomo Ruling party: Gran Alianza Nacional (GANA) (Grand National Alliance) (elected Nov 2003) Area: 108,890 square km Population: 12.39 million (2004) Capital: Guatemala City Official language: Spanish Currency: Quetzal (Q) = 100 centavos Exchange rate: Q7.80 per US$ (Nov 2004) GDP per capita: US$1,941 (2003) GDP real growth: 2.40% (2003) Labour force: 4.20 million (2003) Unemployment: 7.50% (2003) Inflation: 5.60% (2003) Balance of trade: -US$3.51 billion (2003) Foreign debt: US$4.90 billion (2003)

Historical profile

1523–24 Pedro de Alvarado fought and defeated the indigenous Mayan civilisation and created Guatamala as a Spanish colony.

1821 The Central American provinces (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) declared independence from Spain.

1822 Central American confederation annexed itself to the Mexican Empire, under General Agustín de Iturbde, later Emporer Agustín I.

1823 Agustín I was overthrown and Mexico became a republic. The Central American states formed the United Provinces of Central America.

1825 Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador formed the Central American Federation (CAF).

1838 The CAF was dissolved and Guatemala became a fully independent republic.

1844–65 Guatemala was ruled by conservative dictator Rafael Carrera.

1873–85 Guatemala was ruled by liberal president Rufino Barrios, who attempted to modernise the country by developing an army and introducing coffee plantations.

1931 Jorge Ubico began a period of repressive rule.

1941 Guatemala declared war on the Axis Powers.

1944 Ubico was overthrown and replaced by Juan José Arevalo, who introduced social reforms, including a social security system and land redistribution.

1951 Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán became president and stepped up the reforms.

1954 A US-backed coup, prompted by the nationalisation of disused land owned by the United Fruit Company, installed a military dictatorship under the rule of Carlos Castillo.

1963 Castillo was assassinated and replaced by Enrique Peralta.

1966 Civilian rule was restored and César Méndez was elected president.

1970 Carlos Arena, backed by the military and the US, was elected president. He began a campaign to eliminate the country's left-wing and trade unionists which led to civil war.

1976 More than 27,000 people were killed and one million made homeless by an earthquake.

1981 More than 11,000 people were killed by death squads and soldiers in response to increasing anti-government guerrilla activity.

1982 General Efraín Ríos Montt seized power in a military coup.

1983 Montt was ousted by General Mejía Victores, who declared an amnesty on guerrillas.

1985 Marco Vinicio Cerezo was elected president and Democracia Cristiana Guatemalteco (DCG) (Guatemalan Christian Democracy) won legislative elections.

1989 An attempt to overthrow Cerezo failed.

1991 Jorge Serrano Elias was elected president.

1993 Serrano's attempt to impose an authoritarian regime led to mass demonstrations and he was forced to resign. Ramiro de Leon Carpio was elected president by the legislature.

1994 Peace talks began between the government and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity).

1995 The URNG declared a cease-fire. The UN and the US criticised the government for widespread human rights violations and the deaths of more than 200,000 civilians during the civil war.

1996 After a civil war lasting 36 years, a peace treaty was signed. Alvaro Arzú and his Partido de Avanzada Nacional (PAN) (National Advancement Party) won the subsequent presidential and National Congress elections. Arzú began a purge on senior military officers implicated in human rights violations.

1999 A UN-sponsored investigation found that the security forces were responsible for 93 per cent of all human rights atrocities committed during the civil war and that the military had overseen 626 massacres in Mayan villages. Alfonso Portillo of the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG) (Guatemalan Republican Front) was elected president.

2000 Portillo was sworn in as president.

2001 A foreign exchange law allowed the free circulation of US dollars from May and citizens and companies were allowed to hold US dollar bank deposits without prior authorisation. The government paid US$1.8 million in compensation to the families of 226 men, women and children killed by soldiers and death squads in the village of Las Dos Erres in the north of Guatemala in 1982.

2002 The central bank president was kidnapped, but released after a ransom was paid.

2003 In February, teachers striking over demands for salary increases and improvements to the school system, disrupted international air travel and access to the seaports. The Constitutional Court ruled, in July, that General Efraín Ríos Montt, who had siezed and briefly held power in 1982–83, could stand for election as president, despite allegations of genocide against him. The ruling FRG was defeated by the Gran Alianza Nacional (GANA) (Grand National Alliance) in the parliamentary elections. Óscar Berger Perdomo (GANA) won the largest proportion of the vote in the presidential run-off election on 28 December.

2004 Berger was sworn in as president on 14 January.

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