Fast Facts

Geography

Guatemala is a beautiful country located about 1,000 miles south of Houston. It lies below Mexico and directly above El Salvador and Honduras.

  • Capital: Guatemala City
  • Population: 13,276,517 people, of which 60% are mestizo and 40% are indigenous*
  • Size: 108,889 sq km (slightly smaller than TN)*
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A pyramid at Tikal, one of the largest Pre-Columbian Maya archaelogical sites
History
Guatemala experienced a civil war for 36 years that was ended in 1996 with the signing of a peace accord. It is estimated that government troops killed 200,000 innocent indigenous individuals, and has been labeled as genocide by many human rights experts, yet the government still has not prosecuted a single individual for these deaths. This dark chapter in Guatemala’s history has left many indigenous and poor (which are often one and of the same) populations disenfranchised and victims of structural violence.

Poverty
  • 56.2% of the country lives below the national poverty line^
  • 74.5% of the rural population lives below the national poverty line^
  • 16% of the country lives on less than $1 per day^
  • There are .9 physicians for every 1,000 people in Guatemala^*
  • 41% of births are attended by skilled health personnel^*
* CIA Worldbook
^ World Bank
^* World Health Organization
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For more information, see Resources.

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