Reuters AlertNet Lite - FACTBOX-Political and general facts about Guatemala

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FACTBOX-Political and general facts about Guatemala

09 Sep 2007 17:09:19 GMT
Source: Reuters

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Around 6 million Guatemalans were expected to vote on Sunday in an election forecast to be a tight finish between right-wing former Gen. Otto Perez Molina and center-left, third-time presidential hopeful Alvaro Colom.

Here are some key facts about Guatemala:

GEOGRAPHY: Area: 42,042 square miles (108,900 sq km). Guatemala is bound by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the south and El Salvador, Honduras and Belize to the east.

POPULATION: About 13 million people.

LANGUAGE: Spanish is the official language. More than 20 indigenous languages - Xinca, Garifuna and various Mayan languages - are also spoken.

ETHNICITY: Close to half of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent. There is also a large Ladino population (who may be descended from Native Americans or Spaniards but do not identify themselves as indigenous). And there are small groups of Garifuna - a black indigenous community - and Xinca.

RELIGION: Mainly Catholic. The number of Protestant groups has been growing. Mayan spiritual practices are also followed, usually alongside Catholicism.

ECONOMY: Guatemala's economy should grow by 5.6 percent in 2007, the fastest annual growth in two decades, driven by sugar and fruit exports.

-- Guatemala's free trade deal with the United States should lead to a more than 50 percent rise in foreign direct investment in 2007.

SOME RECENT HISTORY: After a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, the military ruled almost uninterruptedly for three decades from the 1950s, only handing over power to an elected center-left president, Vinicio Cerezo, in 1986.

-- Leftist rebels took up arms in the early 1960s. The army reacted with counterinsurgency sweeps across large areas of the country, committing a string of atrocities in the early 1980s. Cerezo survived two coup attempts and handed over power in January 1991 to conservative businessman Jorge Serrano.

-- The subsequent election of rights campaigner Ramiro de Leon raised hopes of an end to political violence. But it was not until 1996, under President Alvaro Arzu, that peace accords were signed to end 36 years of civil war.

-- Some 250,000 people disappeared or were killed in the decades of fighting. A truth commission found over 85 percent of war crimes were committed by the army, most during the early 1980s rule of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who is now running for Congress and facing genocide charges in a Spanish court.

-- Ten years on, Guatemala is still racked with violence, and struggling to overcome corruption, drug smuggling and poverty. Drug traffickers and former paramilitaries with links to rival political groups are believed to be behind the at least 50 killings in the most violent election race since 1996.

-- Guatemala has one of the world's highest homicide rates, with close to 6,000 people killed in 2006. (Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg)

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Last updated:Sun Sep 9 17:09:47 2007