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This is an exciting opportunity for you to not only learn Spanish, but
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A School where you
must to come to
Study! |
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Founded
in 1990
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First school authorized by the
Ministry of Education of Guatemala. |
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First school registered by the
Guatemalan Tourism Institute.
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The History of Guatemala
The Maya civilization flourished throughout much of
Guatemala and the surrounding region for close to 2,000 years before the
Spanish arrived. Most of the great Classic Maya cities of the Petén
region of Guatemala's northern lowlands were abandoned by AD 1000. The
states of the central highlands, however, were still flourishing until
the arrival of the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado who brutally
subjugated the native states in 1523-1527.
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The Era of Spanish Rule
During Spanish colonial rule, most of Central America came under the
control of the Captaincy General of Guatemala.
The first colonial capital of Guatemala, now called Ciudad Vieja, was
ruined by floods and an earthquake in 1542. Survivors founded a second
city of Guatemala, now known as La Antigua, in 1543. In the 17th century,
Antigua Guatemala became one of the richest capitals in the New World.
Always vulnerable to volcanic eruptions, floods, and earthquakes,
Antigua was destroyed by two earthquakes in 1773, but the remnants of
its Spanish colonial architecture have been preserved as a national
monument. The third capital, modern Guatemala City, was founded in 1776,
after Antigua was ordered to be abandoned. |
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The 19th Century
Guatemala gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821; it
briefly became part of the Mexican Empire and then for a period belonged
to a federation called the United Provinces of Central America, until
the federation broke up in civil war in 1838-1840. Guatemala's Rafael
Carrera was instrumental in leading the revolt against the federal
government and breaking apart the Union. Carrera dominated Guatemala
through 1865, backed by conservatives, powerful landowners, and the
Church. Guatemala's "Liberal Revolution" came in 1871 under the
leadership of Justo Rufino Barrios, who worked to modernize the country,
improve trade, and introduce new crops and manufacturing. During this
era coffee became an important crop for Guatemala. Barrios had ambitions
of reuniting Central America and took the country to war in an
unsuccessful attempt to attain this; he died on the battlefield in 1885.
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The 20th Century
The United Fruit Company (UFC) started becoming a major force in
Guatemala in 1901 during the long presidency of Manuel José Estrada
Cabrera. Government was often subservient to Company interests. While
the company helped with building some schools, they also stood in the
way of progress, such as when they opposed building highways because
this would compete with their railroad monopoly. The UFC controlled more
than 40% of the country's best land and the port facilities.
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The "Ten Years of Spring"
In 1944, General Jorge Ubico's dictatorship was overthrown by the "October
Revolutionaries," a group of dissident military officers, students, and
liberal professionals. This started what is sometimes called the Ten
Years of Spring, a period of rare free speech and political
organizations, land reform, and a perception that great progress could
be made in Guatemala. A civilian president, Juan Jose Arevalo, was
elected in 1945 and held the presidency until 1951. Social reforms
initiated by Arevalo were continued by his successor, Colonel Jacobo
Arbenz. Arbenz permitted the communist Guatemalan Labor Party to gain
legal status in 1952. By the midpoint of Arbenz's term, Communists
controlled key peasant organizations, labor unions, and the governing
political party, holding some key government positions. Despite most
Guatemalans' attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising,
some private sector leaders and the military viewed Arbenz's policies as
a menace. The army refused to defend the Arbenz government when a U.S.-
and UFC-backed group led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas invaded the
country from Honduras in 1954 and quickly took over the government.
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The Second Half of the 20th Century
In response to the increasingly autocratic rule of General Ydigoras
Fuentes, who took power in 1958 following the murder of Colonel Castillo
Armas, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960. When they
failed, several went into hiding and established close ties with Cuba.
This group became the nucleus of the forces that were in armed
insurrection against the government for the next 36 years.
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Four principal left-wing guerrilla groups -- the
Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Revolutionary Organization of
Armed People (ORPA), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the Guatemalan
Labor Party (PGT) -- conducted economic sabotage and targeted government
installations and members of government security forces in armed attacks.
These organizations combined to form the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in 1982. At the same time, extreme right-wing
groups of self-appointed vigilantes, including the Secret Anti-Communist
Army (ESA) and the White Hand, tortured and murdered students,
professionals, and peasants suspected of involvement in leftist
activities. Shortly after President Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro took
office in 1966, the army launched a major counterinsurgency campaign
that largely broke up the guerrilla movement in the countryside. The
guerrillas then concentrated their attacks in Guatemala City, where they
assassinated many leading figures, including U.S. Ambassador John Gordon
Mein in 1968. Between 1966 and 1982, there were a series of military or
military-dominated governments.
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On March 23, 1982, army troops commanded by junior
officers staged a coup to prevent the assumption of power by General
Angel Anibal Guevara, the handpicked candidate of outgoing President and
General Romeo Lucas Garcia. They denounced Guevara's electoral victory
as fraudulent. The coup leaders asked retired General Efrain Rios Montt
to negotiate the departure of Lucas and Guevara. Rios Montt had been the
candidate of the Christian Democracy Party in the 1974 presidential
elections and was widely regarded as having been denied his own victory
through fraud. |
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Rios Montt was by this time a lay pastor in the evangelical
protestant Church of the Word. In his inaugural address, he stated that
his presidency resulted from the will of God. He was widely perceived as
having strong backing from the United States' Reagan administration. He
formed a three-member military junta that annulled the 1965 constitution,
dissolved Congress, suspended political parties, and canceled the
electoral law. After a few months, Rios Montt dismissed his junta
colleagues and assumed the de facto title of "President of the Republic."
Guerrilla forces and their leftist allies denounced Rios Montt. He
sought to defeat the guerrillas with military actions and economic
reforms -- in his words, "rifles and beans." In May 1982, the Conference
of Catholic Bishops accused Rios Montt of responsibility for growing
militarization of the country and for continuing military massacres of
civilians. General Rios Montt was quoted in the July 18, 1982, New York
Times as telling an audience of indigenous Guatemalans, "If you are with
us, we'll feed you; if not, we'll kill you."
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The government began to form local civilian defense
patrols (PACs). Participation was in theory voluntary, but in practice,
many Guatemalans, especially in the northwest, had no choice but to join
either the PACs or the guerrillas. Rios Montt's conscript army and PACs
recaptured essentially all guerrilla territory -- guerrilla activity
lessened and was largely limited to hit-and-run operations. However,
Rios Montt won this partial victory at an enormous cost in civilian
deaths. . |
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Rios Montt's brief presidency was probably the most violent period of
the 36-year internal conflict, which resulted in about 200,000 deaths of
mostly unarmed indigenous civilians. Although leftist guerrillas and
right-wing death squads also engaged in summary executions, forced
disappearances, and torture of noncombatants, the vast majority of human
rights violations were carried out by the Guatemalan military and the
PACs they controlled. The internal conflict is described in great detail
in the reports of the Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) and the
Archbishop's Office for Human Rights (ODHAG). The CEH estimates that
government forces were responsible for 93% of the violations; ODHAG
earlier estimated that government forces were responsible for 80%.
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On August 8, 1983, Rios Montt was deposed by his own
Minister of Defense, General Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, who
succeeded him as de facto president of Guatemala. Mejia justified his
coup, saying that "religious fanatics" were abusing their positions in
the government and also because of "official corruption." Seven people
were killed in the coup, although Rios Montt survived to found a
political party (the Guatemalan Republic Front) and to be elected
President of Congress in 1995 and 2000. Awareness in the United States
of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with
the 1983 publication of I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in
Guatemala. General Mejia allowed a managed return to democracy in
Guatemala, starting with a July 1, 1984, election for a Constituent
Assembly to draft a democratic constitution. On May 30, 1985, after 9
months of debate, the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new
constitution, which took effect immediately. Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian
politician and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democracy
Party, won the first election held under the new constitution with
almost 70% of the vote, and took office on January 14, 1986.
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1986 to 2001 Upon its inauguration in January 1986,
President Cerezo's civilian government announced that its top priorities
would be to end the political violence and establish the rule of law.
Reforms included new laws of habeas corpus and amparo (court-ordered
protection), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and
the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman. The
Supreme Court also embarked on a series of reforms to fight corruption
and improve legal system efficiency. |
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With Cerezo's election, the military moved away from governing and
returned to the more traditional role of providing internal security,
specifically by fighting armed insurgents. The first two years of
Cerezo's administration were characterized by a stable economy and a
marked decrease in political violence. Dissatisfied military personnel
made two coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but military leadership
supported the constitutional order. The government was heavily
criticized for its unwillingness to investigate or prosecute cases of
human rights violations. |
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The final two years of Cerezo's government were also
marked by a failing economy, strikes, protest marches, and allegations
of widespread corruption. The government's inability to deal with many
of the nation's problems -- such as infant mortality, illiteracy,
deficient health and social services, and rising levels of violence --
contributed to popular discontent. Presidential and congressional
elections were held on November 11, 1990. After a runoff ballot, Jorge
Serrano was inaugurated on January 14, 1991, thus completing the first
transition from one democratically elected civilian government to
another. Because his Movement of Solidarity Action Party (MAS) gained
only 18 of 116 seats in Congress, Serrano entered into a tenuous
alliance with the Christian Democrats and the National Union of the
Center (UCN). |
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The Serrano administration's record was mixed. It had some success in
consolidating civilian control over the army, replacing a number of
senior officers and persuading the military to participate in peace
talks with the URNG. He took the politically unpopular step of
recognizing the sovereignty of Belize. The Serrano government reversed
the economic slide it inherited, reducing inflation and boosting real
growth. On May 25, 1993, Serrano illegally dissolved Congress and the
Supreme Court and tried to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly to fight
corruption. The "autogolpe" (or autocoup) failed due to unified, strong
protests by most elements of Guatemalan society, international pressure,
and the army's enforcement of the decisions of the Court of
Constitutionality, which ruled against the attempted takeover. In the
face of this pressure, Serrano fled the country. |
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On June 5, 1993, Congress, pursuant to the 1985
constitution, elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Ramiro De Leon Carpio,
to complete Serrano's presidential term. De Leon, not a member of any
political party and lacking a political base, but with strong popular
support, launched an ambitious anticorruption campaign to "purify"
Congress and the Supreme Court, demanding the resignations of all
members of the two bodies. Despite considerable congressional resistance,
presidential and popular pressure led to a November 1993 agreement
brokered by the Catholic Church between the Administration and Congress.
This package of constitutional reforms was approved by popular
referendum on January 30, 1994. In August 1994, a new Congress was
elected to complete the unexpired term. Controlled by the anti-corruption
parties -- the populist Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) headed by
ex-General Efrain Rios Montt, and the center-right National Advancement
Party (PAN) -- the new Congress began to move away from the corruption
that characterized its predecessors.
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Under De Leon, the peace process, now brokered by the
United Nations, took on new life. The government and the URNG signed
agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of displaced
persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and
indigenous rights (March 1995). They also made significant progress on a
socioeconomic and agrarian agreement. National elections for president,
the Congress, and municipal offices were held in November 1995. With
almost 20 parties competing in the first round, the presidential
election came down to a January 7, 1996, runoff in which PAN candidate
Alvaro Arzú defeated Alfonso Portillo of the FRG by just over 2% of the
vote. Arzú won because of his strength in Guatemala City, where he had
previously served as mayor, and in the surrounding urban area. Portillo
won all of the rural departments except Petén. Under the Arzú
administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and the government
signed peace accords ending the 36-year internal conflict in December
1996. The human rights situation also improved during Arzú's tenure, and
steps were taken to reduce the influence of the military in national
affairs.
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Guatemala held presidential, legislative, and municipal
elections on November 7, 1999, and a runoff presidential election
December 26. In the first round the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG)
won 63 of 113 legislative seats, while the National Advancement Party
(PAN) won 37. The New Nation Alliance (ANN) won 9 legislative seats, and
three minority parties won the remaining 4. In the runoff on December
26, Alfonso Portillo (FRG) won 68% of the vote to 32% for Oscar Berger
(PAN). Portillo carried all 22 departments and Guatemala City, which was
considered the PAN's stronghold. Portillo was criticized during the
campaign for his relationship with the FRG's chairman, former General
Efrain Rios Montt, the de facto president of Guatemala in 1982-1983.
Many charge that some of the worst human rights violations of the
internal conflict were committed under Rios Montt's rule. Nevertheless,
Portillo's impressive electoral triumph, with two-thirds of the vote in
the second round, gave him a claim to a mandate from the people to carry
out his reform program.
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President Portillo pledged to maintain strong ties to
the United States, further enhance Guatemala's growing cooperation with
Mexico, and participate actively in the integration process in Central
America and the Western Hemisphere. Domestically, he vowed to support
continued liberalization of the economy, increase investment in human
capital and infrastructure, establish an independent central bank, and
increase revenue by stricter enforcement of tax collections rather than
increasing taxation. Portillo also promised to continue the peace
process, appoint a civilian defense minister, reform the armed forces,
replace the military presidential security service with a civilian one,
and strengthen protection of human rights. He appointed a pluralist
cabinet, including indigenous members and others not affiliated with the
FRG ruling party. Progress in carrying out Portillo's reform agenda
during his first year in office was slow. As a result, public support
for the government sank to nearly record lows by early 2001. Although
the administration made progress on such issues as taking state
responsibility for past human rights cases and supporting human rights
in international fora, it failed to show significant advances on
combating impunity in past human rights cases, military reforms, a
fiscal pact to help finance peace implementation, and legislation to
increase political participation.
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Faced with a high crime rate, a public corruption
problem, often-violent harassment and intimidation by unknown assailants
of human rights activists, judicial workers, journalists, and witnesses
in human rights trials, the government began serious attempts in 2001 to
open a national dialogue to discuss the considerable challenges facing
the country. In July 2003, demonstrations rocked the capital, forcing
the closing of the U.S. Embassy, as supporters of Rios Montt called for
his return to power. These supporters want the nation's courts to
overturn a ban against former coup leaders (such as Rios Montt), so that
he can run as a presidential candidate in elections to be held in
November 2003. |
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Sources:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/History-of-Guatemala/
www. Guatemalensis.com / Timo
Berger |
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