According to ezinereligion, in 2007, Guatemala had a population of approximately 13.8 million people. The country’s economy was largely based on agriculture, however manufacturing and tourism had been steadily growing in the years prior to 2007. Guatemala was heavily reliant on foreign aid from the United States and other countries, as it was one of the poorest countries in Central America. Foreign relations were mainly with other Central American states, as well as Mexico, the United States and Canada. In terms of politics in 2007, Guatemala was a presidential republic headed by President Oscar Berger Perdomo who had been elected in 2004. The main opposition party at the time was the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (URNG) led by former guerrilla leader Efraín Ríos Montt.
Yearbook 2007
Guatemala. According to CountryAAH, Guatemala City is the capital city of Guatemala. Álvaro Colom, candidate for the center-left alliance Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), won the second round of the presidential election on November 4 with 53 percent against 47 percent for right-wing candidate Otto Pérez Molina. The turnout was low; only half of those eligible to vote. However, the election campaign was violent; inter alia the party secretary for Perez Molina’s party Partido Patriota (PP) was murdered and one of the mayoral candidates for the Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchús party Encuentro por Guatemala (EC). Incidentally, she received just over 3 percent of the presidential vote. Prior to the first round of elections on September 9, a total of 50 people died, many in connection with violent protests against suspected electoral fraud and voting sabotage.
- According to abbreviationfinder: GT is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Guatemala.
Even the congressional and local elections held on September 9 became a triumph for Colom’s UNE. In Congress, the party’s seats were increased by one-third to 48 out of 158. The party did not get its own majority, but Colom’s opportunities to gather support for voting in the House were still considered good. The remarkably poor result of Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG), whose mandate was halved, was outweighed by its leader, the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who is the subject of an international investigation into human rights violations, given him another four years of legal immunity. UNE also won the majority of mayor posts in 18 of 22 provinces.
The violence in Guatemala caused tension in relation to El Salvador in February, when three Salvadoran members of the so-called Central American Parliament in Guatemala City were murdered. Four Guatemalan police officers were arrested for the act but were murdered only a few days later inside the prison under unclear circumstances. The events focused on Guatemala’s recognized corrupt police force and its links to international drug trafficking.
GUATEMALA. – At the 1973 census the residents were 5,175,000, that is 890,927 more than those recorded in 1964 (average annual increase of 2.3%); according to an estimate, in 1975 they had risen to 6,129,000, on average 56 residents per km 2, very differently distributed (from 524 in the department of Guatemala to 1 in that of Petén). Amerindians are almost 50%, the highest percentage in Central America and one of the largest in all of Latin America. The capital in 1970 had 730,991 residents. Among the other urban centers, all of a much lower rank, Escuintla and Quezaltenango are in great expansion.
Guatemala is essentially a rural country: the agricultural population is over 60% of the active population and rural products provide more than a quarter of the gross national product and almost all exports. A large part of this (in some years almost half) is given by coffee, of which 1.3 million q were produced in 1973; other commercial crops are those of cotton (900,000 q of fiber in 1971) and cane (2.7 million q of sugar in 1973), once cultivated only in the eastern lowlands and now widespread also on the Pacific side; the cultivation of the banana tree (5.2 million q of fruit in 1973), after alternating events due to the diseases that have struck the plants several times, has returned mainly to the Caribbean side. Corn stands out among the products destined for domestic consumption (7.6 million q in 1973).
Guatemala is the state of Isthmian America that has the largest number of pigs and sheep (the latter, however, decreasing): respectively 980,000 and 650,000 heads in 1973; but the most important breeding is the bovine one (1.8 million head), which allows a fair export of meat.
The policy of agrarian transformation, suspended after the coup of 1954, was resumed, on very different bases and emptied of its revolutionary content, in 1962, with the distribution of land and the establishment of cooperatives.
Timber production reached 7 million m 3 in 1973.
Mining remains modest: searches for nickel-bearing minerals were undertaken in 1968 by a Canadian company and in 1967 an Italian company started the exploitation of sulfur deposits.
In the 1960s, some notable electrical systems were completed (Los Esclavos, Jurun-Marinala) and the hydroelectric refurbishment of Lake Atitlán is now underway. In 1971 the installed power was 300,000 kW and the energy produced 830 million kWh.
Manufactures contribute only 14% to the formation of the gross national product and employ just 12% of the active population, but they are definitely on the rise. Alongside the traditional food and tobacco industries, textile and chemical factories and various other plants have appeared, including a large tire factory and two oil refineries. The largest industrial agglomerations are in the capital, in Escuintla and Puerto Barríos.
The trade balance has been slightly active in recent years. The United States is the main partner ; followed at a distance by El Salvador, the Federal Republic of Germany and – starting from the mid-1960s – Japan; Great Britain also appears among the suppliers.
Among the ports the Caribbean ones clearly prevail, especially Puerto Barríos and the new port of Santo Tomás de Castilla. Guatemala-La Aurora Airport has international functions. The railways extend for 800 km; the roads for about 13,000 (of which 830 belong to the “Pan-American”), but only 5,000 are practicable in all seasons; there were 80,000 cars in 1971.
Tourists are on the rise (400,000 in 1973).
In February 1976 the Guatemala was devastated by a catastrophic series of earthquakes, which began in the very early hours of day 4, but repeated on the 7th and even later, affecting an area of about 30,000 km 2. According to official data released in the last days of the month, 22,278 died, over 76,500 were injured, more than a million people were left homeless. The most affected department was that of Chimaltenango.
Guatemala weather in March, April and May
Daily temperatures averaging 27 to 29 ° C can be expected over the next three months. The temperatures hardly fluctuate during this time.
In the period from March to May, the sun shines an average of 5 to 7 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in April in Guatemala City, but with less sun you will have to get by in May.