Guatemala 2016

Yearbook 2016

Guatemala. According to countryaah, the current population of Guatemala is 17,915,579. President Jimmy Morales was increasingly hired during the year by corruption charges against parties in his government coalition FCN-Nación (National Convergence Party) and people in his vicinity. In September, the State Prosecutor’s Office announced that some of the founders of FCN-Nación would be investigated for, among other things, illegal money donations to Morale’s 2015 election campaign and contacts with organized crime.

Guatemala Population 2016

At the same time, questions were raised about the election of Silvia Patricia Valdés Quezada in September to a new chair of the electoral court because she was accused of going to the president’s affairs. Morale’s integrity was also questioned in connection with a state of emergency issued by him the same month that his son José Manuel and brother Samuel Everardo were banned from the State Prosecutor’s Office because of charges of corruption.

In June, new revelations were made about widespread corruption under former President Otto Pérez Molina, and seven members of Congress and three former members were suspected of crimes. The following month, it was announced that Pérez Molina himself would face trial for bribery to the tune of $ 38 million.

Doubts about the rule of law in the country also arose in connection with the state prosecutor Thelma Aldana, who was active in the processes that led to President Pérez Molina’s resignation in 2015, received death threats. Both domestic human rights groups and the UN-supported Commission on Impunity (CICIG) expressed concerns about Aldana’s security.

Morales was also hired by massive protests in July from teachers and healthcare professionals, which required greater public sector investment to address major quality deficiencies in public service. As a direct consequence of the protests, Minister of Health Alfonso Cabrera resigned a few days later, the third minister to do so during Morale’s first six months as president. The prison sector was also in critical condition. In July, a riot broke out at El Pavón Prison outside Guatemala City, leading to the death of 14 people and the resignation of the country’s prison sector Carlos de León Zea.

Tensions with neighboring Belize increased after repeated border interim zones at the beginning of the year but were somewhat dampened after a meeting between President Morales and Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow in April. Morales has taken a more hard line than its predecessors in the border conflict that has long disrupted relations between the two countries.

  • Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the 3-letter abbreviation of GTM stands for the nation of Guatemala in geography.

Population

Guatemala is a state of Central America; it borders Mexico (to the N and to the W), Belize, Honduras and El Salvador (to the E) and is bordered to the South by the Pacific; between Belize and Honduras it overlooks the Atlantic for a short distance (Amatique Bay).

Guatemala is the most populous country in Isthmian Central America but, at the same time, it is one of the least developed and most contradictory realities. The crux is constituted by the profound inequality existing between the living conditions of the majority of the population, composed of Amerindians (about 41%), compared to the minority made up of mestizos (30%), whites (4%) and Creoles (11%).), the so-called ladinos. The former live largely in the tierras frías, where agricultural soils are less fertile and the lack of infrastructures and social services is greater, or where they work on large landed estates, in conditions of poverty and marginalization. Furthermore, the demographic increase (2.06% in 2009) weighs significantly on the modest resources available, while the number of unemployed is growing and a large part of the population is in a state of severe poverty. According to UN estimates, about 75% of family groups live in conditions of poverty; 60% of the population does not have access to drinking water; about 44% of the population over the age of 15 is illiterate, a percentage that rises to 70% in women; infant mortality is around 27.8 ‰ (2009 estimate).

Although the official language is Spanish, Mayan idioms are widely used among Amerindians. The religion professed by the large majority is Catholic (75.9%).

Climate

In Guatemala there is a somewhat more moderate tropical climate in the higher elevations. The precipitation falls in summer, only on the Atlantic coast winter rains are frequent. According to thereligionfaqs, the temperatures in Guatemala City are between 16 ° C and 19 ° C. The precipitation in July is 211mm, in January it is 3mm.