Guatemala - national flag
The flag was introduced in 1871, but did not become official until 1968. It
dates back to the Treaty of Independence with Spain in 1821, and the colors blue
and white originate from the flag introduced by the Central American Union. The
stripes in the Guatemalan flag are vertical unlike the flags of the other
Central American states; blue stands for justice, and white for purity.
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What does the flag of Guatemala look like? Follow this link, then you will
see the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
Guatemala - History
Guatemala was approximately 100-900-t. the center of Mayan culture, after which
the area came under Aztec influence. The Spaniard Pedro de Alvarado conquered
most of Guatemala in 1523-24, but the conquest, which was first secured in the
1540's, was hampered by the mountainous regions, which provided protection for
the Indians, which is also one of the explanations for the position of Native
American cultures today. The administration was moved several times; Among other
things, was the administrative city of Antigua from the mid-1500's, until it was
destroyed by an earthquake in 1773, after which the current capital Ciudad de
Guatemala Founded. Guatemala, which was of little economic importance to Spain,
produced cocoa and later indigo by means of slaves and Native American forced
labor; The capital was an important administrative center of Chiapas,
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. After
independence from Spain in 1821, these territories were united under
Mexico. With the exception of Chiapas, the territories merged in 1823 into
the United Provinces of independent Central America. With the constitution of
1824, the association became a federation, which, however, disintegrated during
the 1830's, and in 1838 Guatemala became independent.
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such as GTM which represents the official name of Guatemala.

Heads of state since 1898 |
1898-1920'sort |
Manuel Estrada Cabrera |
1920-22 |
Carlos Herrera |
1922-26 |
José Orellana |
1926-30 |
Lázaro Chacón |
1930 |
Baudillo Palma |
1930 |
Manuel Orellana |
1931 |
José María Reina |
1931-44 |
Jorge Ubico |
1944 |
Federico Ponce Vaides |
1944-45 |
Juan Jacobo Arbenz Guzman |
1945-51 |
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo |
1951-54 |
Juan Jacobo Arbenz Guzman |
1954 |
Carlos Díaz |
1954 |
Elfego Monzón |
1954-57 |
Carlos Castillo Armas |
1957 |
Luis Gonzales López |
1957-58 |
Guillermo Flores |
1958-63 |
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes |
1963-66 |
Enrique Peralta Azurdia |
1966-70 |
Julio César Méndez Montenegro |
1970-74 |
Carlos Arana Osorio |
1974-78 |
Kjell Laugerud García |
1978-82 |
Fernando Romeo Lucas García |
1982 |
Angel Aníbal Guevara |
1982-83 |
Efraín Ríos Montt |
1983-86 |
Oscar Mejía Víctores |
1986-91 |
Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo |
1991-94 |
Jorge Serrano Elías |
1994-96 |
Ramiro de León Carpio |
1996-2000 |
Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen |
2000-04 |
Alfonso Portillo Cabrera |
2004-08 |
Óscar Berger Perdomo |
2008-12 |
Álvaro Colom |
2012-15 |
Otto Pérez Molina |
2015-16 |
Alejandro Maldonado (acting) |
2016- |
Jimmy Morales |
The classic Latin American struggle between liberals and conservatives was
then underway. The conservative Rafael Carrera was until 1865 the real leader of
Guatemala. The revolution of 1871 ushered in a long period of liberal
domination. Justo Rufino Barrios, president from 1873, seized the church
property and began the development of industry and infrastructure, and to make
room for plantation management, many Native American peasants were expelled from
their lands.
Guatemala's problems were increasingly addressed through violence. Manuel
Estrada Cabrera (1857-1924) began his 22-year dictatorship in 1898 and in 1901
gave the American United Fruit Company permission to establish themselves in the
country. The company monopolized the production and export of bananas and had a
decisive influence on Guatemala's economy. In 1931, General Jorge Ubico came to
power; he increased production, but in return wages fell and the Native American
peasant population was required to work for the plantation owners and the
state. Growing resistance culminated in 1944 with a general strike that forced
Ubico to resign. A coup with Jacobo Arbenz at the helm ended the same year
the long period of liberal-led dictatorships. In 1945, Juan José Arévalo became
president of the country's first free elections. He and from 1951 Arbenz sought
to reduce dependence partly on foreign countries and partly on the one-sided
banana and coffee production. The country got a new constitution, unions were
allowed, forced labor was abolished, and in 1952, Arbenz implemented a land
reform that affected the United Fruit Company and the estates. Parts of the army
as well as the church, the landowners and the United States accused Arbenz of
pursuing communist policies. A US-trained invasion army of exiled Guatemalans
was organized in Honduras, and in 1954 the country was invaded and Arbenz
overthrown. The leader of the invasion army, Carlos Castillo Armas, took over the presidency the same year. He banned political parties and
unions and halted land reforms, but was assassinated in 1957 after internal
power struggles. Now followed a period marked by death squads, massacres of
Indians and struggle against the guerrilla movements, which from 1982 were
united in the URNG, Guatemala's National Revolutionary Unit.
Hopes for new presidents were repeatedly shattered by the growing power of
the military, and in 1976, Guatemala was hit by a powerful earthquake that
killed more than 20,000 people. Rumors of oil discoveries in the north of the
country led to renewed interest in Belize, which had been controversial since
the 1800's, and Belize's independence from Britain in 1981 was therefore met with
protests. It was not until 1991 that Guatemala recognized the country, in
exchange for the British fulfilling a 1859 promise to establish road and port
facilities to facilitate Guatemala's access to the Atlantic. The oil rumors also
led to the area's Indians being driven to flee.
Economic problems and political violence continued into the 1980's, and
international protests grew. In 1986, the Christian Democrat Vinicio Cerezo
Arévalo (b. 1942) became president after a convincing election victory. Nor
could his promises of peace be fulfilled, and in 1990 the United States recalled
its ambassador in protest of human rights violations. They managed to reduce
unemployment, but a fall in coffee prices hit the economy hard. Jorge Serrano
Elías won the election in 1991 without any change. International criticism grew
again after the assassination of the head of the police homicide unit, who had
taken part in the investigation of murder cases involving the military, and
after the 1992 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Indian Rigoberta
Menchú.. When Serrano tried to impose dictatorship the following year, he was
ousted by Congress, which replaced the human rights ombudsman Ramiro de León
Carpio. After a narrow election victory, the right-wing Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen (b.
1946) became president in January 1996; a ceasefire with URNG was established,
and in December a peace agreement was signed.
The rebel movement URNG and the government under President Alvaro Arzú signed
a peace agreement in 1996. But the oppression of the Native American population
continued, and the military remained behind the scenes the decisive power. In
1998, Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi was assassinated, two days after he had
published a report on army assaults during the Civil War. Several military
personnel were later charged with the murder. The following year, a report from
the country's Truth Commission found that the military and paramilitary groups
were behind 80% of a total of 700 massacres. As another offshoot of the peace
agreement, Guatemala's constitution was to be amended in 1999, giving 24 Native
American languages official status and the military deprived of some of its
power. But in a referendum with less than 20% turnout, the 50 amendments fell,
partly due to Indians' fears and mistrust, partly because mestizer and whites
thought the proposals were too expensive to implement and that they would split
the country. In 2000, Alfonso Portillo (b. 1951) from the right-wing party of
the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montts (b. 1927) joined the FRG as president,
but as president of the Congress, Rios Montt delayed any attempt at a
showdown. Despite certain reform proposals and attempts at dialogue with the
warring parties in the country, Portillo failed to achieve decisive results, and
in the presidential election in 2003, the opposition politician Óscar Berger (b.
1946) won. Under Berger, Guatemala was included along with the rest of Central
America and but as congressional chairman, Rios Montt delayed any attempt at a
showdown. Despite certain reform proposals and attempts at dialogue with the
warring parties in the country, Portillo failed to achieve decisive results, and
in the presidential election in 2003, the opposition politician Óscar Berger (b.
1946) won. Under Berger, Guatemala was included along with the rest of Central
America and but as congressional chairman, Rios Montt delayed any attempt at a
showdown. Despite certain reform proposals and attempts at dialogue with the
warring parties in the country, Portillo failed to achieve decisive results, and
in the presidential election in 2003, opposition politician Óscar Berger (b.
1946) won. Under Berger, Guatemala was included along with the rest of Central
America andDominican Republic a free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA, with the United
States.
In the following years, several officers were convicted of crimes committed
during the Civil War. Ex-President Alfonso Portillo was extradited from Mexico
to Guatemala in 2008 on charges of corruption. He was acquitted, but in 2013
extradited to the United States, where he was arraigned on charges of money
laundering. He was released in 2015, after which he returned to Guatemala.
In 2006, a Spanish judge issued an arrest warrant for Ríos Montt and a number
of others accused of crimes committed during the Civil War. A tribunal in
Guatamala sentenced 10.5.2013 former president Ríos Montt to 80 years in prison
for genocide and crimes against humanity as the chief responsible for the
killings of 1771 ixilmayas, which took place in 1982-83 when he ruled the
country as dictator. The Guatemalan Constitutional Court subsequently overturned
the ruling, ordering that the last part of the trial against the country's
former dictator be reopened following procedural errors in the trial. The trial
resumed in 2015.
Conservative Otto Peréz Molina (b. 1.12.1950) won the presidential election
in 2011. He argued that the war on drugs had been a failure and wanted to
legalize drugs. In 2015, he was convicted after an extensive corruption scandal,
where UN investigators contributed to the clarification. Molina was forced
to resign and was then arrested.
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