Množina: Guatemalas

Country in Central America, bounded N and NW by Mexico, E by Belize and the Caribbean Sea, SE by Honduras and El Salvador, and SW by the Pacific Ocean.
government
The 1985 constitution, amended 1994, provides for a single-chamber 80-member congress elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. Sixty-four of its members represent departmental congressional districts and sixteen are elected nationally. The president, also directly elected for a similar term, appoints a cabinet, is assisted by a vice president, and is not eligible for reelection.
history
Formerly part of the Maya empire, Guatemala became a Spanish colony 1524. Independent from Spain 1821, it then joined Mexico, becoming independent 1823. It was part of the United Provinces of Central America 1823–40.
dictatorship
The military rebellion 1838, led by José Rafael Carrera, set a pattern of long-term dictatorship in Guatemala. Thereafter, despite frequent ostentatious displays of constitutionalism, the country was ruled by a succession of personal or military dictators. The Indian population, in particular, was ruthlessly exploited, while human rights were ignored or trampled upon.
A revolutionary strike 1944 led to the electoral triumph of Juan José Arévalo. Along with his successor, Jácobo Arbenz, he attempted to curb the power of the army and install political freedoms. Health services and education were expanded. Agrarian reform was also proposed.
era of coups
Arbenz's nationalization of the United Fruit Company's plantations 1954 so alarmed the US government that it sponsored a revolution, led by Col Carlos Castillo Armas, who then assumed the presidency. He was assassinated 1963, and the army continued to rule until 1966. There was a brief period of constitutional government until the military returned 1970.
In the 1982 presidential election the government candidate won, but opponents complained that the election had been rigged, and before he could take office there was a coup by a group of young right-wing officers, who installed General Ríos Montt as head of a three-person junta. He soon dissolved the junta, assumed the presidency, and began fighting corruption.
The antigovernment guerrilla movement was growing 1981 and was countered by repressive measures by Montt, so that by 1983 opposition to him was widespread. After several unsuccessful attempts to remove him, a coup led by General Mejía Victores finally succeeded. Mejía Victores declared an amnesty for the guerrillas, the ending of press censorship, and the preparation of a new constitution. After its adoption and elections 1985, the Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party (PDCG) won a majority in the congress as well as the presidency, with Vinicio Cerezo becoming president. In 1989 2% of the population owned more than 70% of the land. An attempted coup against Cerezo that year was put down by the army.
deaths and disappearances
The army, funded and trained by the US, destroyed some 440 rural villages and killed more than 100,000 civilians 1980–89; 40,000 people disappeared during the same period. From Jan to Nov 1989 almost 2,000 people were killed and 840 disappeared (representing a six-fold increase over the same period in the preceding year).
constitutional reform
In presidential elections Jan 1991, Jorge Serrano Elías of the Solidarity Action Movement (MAS), an ally of Montt, received 68% of the vote. Diplomatic relations with Belize were established Sept 1991. Serrano suspended the constitution May 1993 after demonstrations against his economic policies, but was forced to step down by the military, who took control of government. The following month human rights prosecutor Ramiro de Leon Carpio was elected president by the assembly. His constitutional reform package, aimed at stamping out corruption, received overwhelming support in a referendum Jan 1994. In the same month talks began between the government and the rebel Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union.
In elections to a new congress, Aug 1994, right-wing parties, led by Montt's Guatemalan Republican Front, won an overall majority. Violence escalated and in March 1995 both the US and United Nations publicly criticized the Guatemalan government for continued and widespread human rights abuses.
A republic in Central America; noted for low per capita income and illiteracy; politically unstable.