{"id":214,"date":"2019-08-04T10:54:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T10:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site70.blogs.americavip.com\/2019\/08\/04\/sobre-guatemala\/"},"modified":"2019-08-04T15:47:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T15:47:30","slug":"sobre-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/2019\/08\/04\/sobre-guatemala\/","title":{"rendered":"Sobre Guatemala"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Guatemala\"

Guatemala<\/p><\/div>\n

Guatemala has the distinction of being the home of one of the Americas\u2019 ancient
\ncultures: the Mayan civilization. That indigenous civilization, which goes as far back as
\n2,000 BC, was based mainly in modern-day Guatemala, and to a lesser degree in
\nsouthern Mexico (including Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Chiapas regions), and portions
\nof Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras.
\nThe Mayan civilization (which was centered in the highlands of Guatemala) came to an
\nabrupt end when the Spanish conquered the country in 1525. Spanish colonial
\nauthorities established the Captaincy General of Guatemala to govern over Central
\nAmerica (which included what\u2019s now southern Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras,
\nNicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala). When the Central American countries
\nbecame independent of Spain in 1821, Guatemala became part of the Federal Republic
\nof Central America (which included the other modern-day Central American countries,
\nexcept for Panama \u2013 which was part of Colombia at the time). Due to unresolved
\npolitical differences, that Federation dissolved, with Guatemala and neighboring
\ncountries becoming independent of one another in 1841.
\nSince then, Guatemala went through a series of authoritarian regimes. By the early 20 th
\ncentury, much of the country\u2019s economy was agricultural, and was controlled by foreign
\nagribusiness interests, in particular the American firm United Fruit Company (UFC) \u2013
\nwhose interests were the industrial-level production &amp; export of the region\u2019s agricultural
\ncrops (ranging from coffee to sugar cane, bananas, etc.). Because of their heavy
\nreliance on agricultural exports at the time, Guatemala, along with neighboring
\nHonduras and other Central American states, were the inspiration behind the political
\nterm \u201cbanana republic\u201d (used by journalists to describe the governments that existed in
\nthat region).
\nDuring the mid-1940s, a pro-democracy movement that pushed for open elections
\nresulted in a reformist government (led by Guatemalan politician Juan Jos\u00e9 Ar\u00e9valo,
\nwho instituted a literacy program and a freer electoral process). One of his supporters,
\nfellow politician Jacobo Arbenz, was elected into the country\u2019s presidency in 1951, who
\nput through a sweeping agrarian reform law (which confiscated idle lands and gave
\nthem to landless peasants). Since such measures angered international agribusiness
\ninterests, elements of the U.S. government (concerned about the alleged spread of
\nCommunism in the region) encouraged the eventual overthrow of Arbenz and his
\ngovernment by that country\u2019s military in 1954 \u2013 which included the aerial bombing of
\nportions of the capital (such as the government\u2019s oil reserves), along with smaller towns.
\nFor decades since that dramatic event, the country had been ruled by the military.
\nFor all intents &amp; purposes, Guatemala was in a state of civil war from 1960 to 1996, due
\nto the military regime\u2019s policies. On and off military operations in the country\u2019s Mayan
\nhighlands were conducted over time (targeting rebels who were suspected of taking
\nsanctuary in those regions). Guatemala\u2019s civil war never gained much international
\nmedia attention, despite U.S. President Ronald Reagan\u2019s concern over the spread of<\/p>\n

Communism in Central America (highlighted by the rise of the Sandinista government in
\nNicaragua during the 1980s, Reagan\u2019s support of \u201ccontra\u201d rebel forces against the
\nSandinistas at that time, a civil war raging in El Salvador, and neighboring Honduras
\nand Costa Rica getting caught up in those conflicts at the time). What little media
\nattention Guatemala generated during the 1980s were massacres ordered by the
\nmilitary ruler at the time (Gen. Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt \u2013 who received not only support from
\nReagan, but from staunch anti-Communist conservative American evangelical
\npreachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). By 1996, a peace accord was signed
\nbetween the Guatemalan government and was what was left of that country\u2019s
\ninsurgency, which never achieved the prominence of the FMLN guerrillas in neighboring
\nEl Salvador during the 1980s (who successfully negotiated a more favorable agreement
\nwith conservative Salvadoran rulers when their civil war ended in the early 1990s).
\nIn recent times, Guatemala, no longer under military rule, has been striving to rectify its
\ncontroversial period of the 1980s, encouraged by local human rights activists like
\nRigoberta Mench\u00fa (who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her efforts to promote
\nindigenous rights and justice against members of the country\u2019s military). Guatemala\u2019s
\nnow-civilian-led government wants to diversify its economy away from its agrarian past,
\nby taking steps to increase tourist activity in the country (using its Mayan ruins as a
\nmajor attraction). By 2013, some 1.7 million visitors came to Guatemala (an increase
\nfrom 826,000 in 2000). That number rose to 2.1 million in 2017, drawn not only to the
\ncountry\u2019s Mayan ruins, but to its little-known eco-tourist destinations like Lake Atitl\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guatemala has the distinction of being the home of one of the Americas\u2019 ancient cultures: the Mayan civilization. That indigenous civilization, which goes as far back as 2,000 BC, was based mainly in modern-day Guatemala, and to a lesser degree in southern Mexico (including Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Chiapas regions), and portions of Belize, El […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,169,168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-general-information","category-things-to-see-and-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/contents.guatemalavip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}