LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Guatemala: Guatemala City
built 642 days ago
Guatemala, in Central America, is a fascinating mix of ancient cultures, indigenous color, colonial history and impressive volcanoes. It is a rich country for language learning. Experts believe Guatemala is an excellent country in which to learn Spanish because the speech and writing have fewer adopted English words and slang. Antigua is a small, cobblestoned Spanish colonial city, once the capital of New Spain. Impressive ruins of churches, palaces and other buildings make it the only city of its kind in Latin America. In 1965 it was named a "Monument of the Americas".
Source:
Within the confines of modern Guatemala City is the ancient Maya city of Kaminaljuyu. Kaminaljuyu dates back some 9,000 years and is one of the Americas' most notable archaeological sites. The center of Kaminaljuyu was located a short distance from the oldest part of Guatemala City. However, in the late 20th century, the city grew around the ruins, and, in some cases, over some of the outlying ruins before they were protected. Many of the several hundred temple mounds have been built over with freeways, shopping centers, commerce, luxury hotels and residential areas. The central ceremonial center of Kaminaljuyu was protected by the Guatemalan government and is now a park within the city.
Source:
Foreign residents of Guatemala have special concerns. Since December 1999, when the Government of Guatemala appointed a Special Prosecutor to investigate all American citizen murders, twenty-four American citizen residents and six American citizen tourists have been murdered, and suspects have been convicted in only two cases. There have been “express” kidnappings in recent years, primarily in Guatemala City, in which a relatively small ransom that can be quickly gathered is demanded. U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in recent years. At least one incident of a random kidnapping, in which the victim was grabbed off the street in an affluent neighborhood of the city, occurred in December 2003 and resulted in a physical and sexual assault.
Source:
Guatemala City has one big airport, La Aurora. There are daily arrivals from the US, México, El Salvador, Honduras (San Pedro Sula), Costa Rica (San José), Nicaragua (Managua), Panamá. Number of arrivals in parenthesis.
Source:
Guatemala’s culture blends the old and the new: the ancient customs of its large Native American population and the modern life of Guatemala City. Ladino culture is dominant in urban areas and is heavily influenced by European and North American trends. Maya culture is deeply rooted in the rural highlands of Guatemala, where many indigenous people speak a Mayan language, follow traditional religious and village customs, and continue to produce traditional textiles and other handicrafts. The two cultures have made Guatemala a complex society that is deeply divided between rich and poor. This division has produced much of the tension and violence that have marked Guatemala’s history.
Source:
In 1996, Ãlvaro Arzú Irigoyen, a former mayor of Guatemala City and foreign minister, won the presidency. He conducted a purge of top military officers and, in Dec., 1996, his government signed a UN-supervised peace accord with the URNG guerrillas, who subsequently regrouped as a political party. The 1999 presidential elections were won by Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, a lawyer and rightist associated with former dictator RÃos Montt and backed by the Guatemalan Republican Front. A draft settlement reached in 2002 with Belize concerning their disputed border contained maritime, but not land, concessions by Belize; the agreement must be approved by national referendums in both nations.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Guatemala City