Guatemalan Government

Guatemala, the most populous country in Central America, is a textbook example of a country firmly in stage 2 of the demographic transition model. A country steeped in rich culture, Guatemala still has a sizeable population of Mayans, the ethnic group that populated the geographical region pre-colonization. This minority is often the victim of marginalization, much like the Native Americans of the United States. This, combined with the pressures of a rapidly increasing population, create many complicated issues for the country to deal with as its next generation comes of age.

United States’ system has its foundation on an agreement between the people and the government to ensure that individual liberties continue to prosper under a free society. The Declaration of Independence lists three important rights that the Founding Fathers considered natural and unalienable. They are the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Government exists to protect these rights. On other hand, the purpose of Guatemala’s government, according to the Guatemala’s Constitution, is to promote the common welfare, the consolidation of the regime of legality, security, equality, justice, liberty and peace. Both countries have its foundation on democracy; nevertheless, there are specific characteristics that mark a difference between them.

My country that i researched is Guatamala . The country of Guatemala is in Central America .On September 15 ,1821, guatemala officially proclaimed its independence from Spain.the guatemala flag has three vertical stripes two blue one white crest has two swords two guns and a parchment scroll bearing the date of Central America's independence from Spain, September 15 , 1821.i will be talking about the crest and how guatemala took their independence from spain,how the flag was created

Surrounded by the Central American countries of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador , lies the beautiful and captivating country of Guatemala. But looking inside the country filled with breathtaking views, is a whole new world marked with such diversity in its culture. Guatemala’s diverse culture is demonstrated through its people, traditions and etiquettes, arts and landmarks, and foods and holidays.

With little to no economic activity, an extremely unstable government, natural disaster, and constant emigration Guatemala has faced a large amount of challenges. One of the largest challenges in Latin Americas history being the brutal 36 year Guatemalan Civil War that tore apart the country. Leaving over 200,000 dead, 200,000 in refugee camps, and the nation in extreme poverty.

Guatemala once was a magnificent vacation destination for many Americans. Now, many Americans are choosing a different getaway.Guatemala has seen many changes to daily life due to drug cartels and street gangs. Drug cartels and street gangs have been taking over the cities and rural areas. These two very dangerous groups of people have been threatening some people and killing others. Many families have to pay to guarantee a safe life. If a family cannot pay, they have to escape their homeland. The cartels and gangs ruined many families and traumatized many more. The citizens need help but, not from only themselves. The government needs to help and realize that there is a problem that can ruin their country. The government needs to take control of the problems that the cartels and gangs create.

Guatemala is a particularly large country in South America. The country’s terrain is dominated by mountains with narrow coastal plains, limestone plateaus, and volcanoes and jungles. The current population of Guatemala is 17,033,253 as of November 2017, according to the latest United Nations estimates (Guatemala Population (LIVE), 2017). The capital of the country is Guatemala City. For the past years, the politicians have been extremely corrupt. In 2016, Jimmy Morales had won the Guatemalan election to become the new president. His campaign slogan was “neither corrupt not a thief”. Because the people of Guatemala were beyond ready for a change in leadership, he won by a landslide. At the start of his term, people loved him and he seemed to be a great guy. He was a former comedian and not a politician so the people loved him. Unfortunately,

Guatemala is located in Central America. It bounds with Mexico in the north and the west while it borders on the east by Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Guatemala is divided in three main regions: the cool highlands, the tropical area and the tropical jungle. Each of these regions has an important characteristic that make them very distinguishable between each other. Most of the Guatemala’s population is concentrated in the cool highlands region.

After independence, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Guatemala solely relied on coffee as a means of exports. Life in Guatemala did not change significantly after independence. However, the major change came economically after independence Guatemala focused on the production of coffee. Coffee became their main cash crop, and foreign investment in coffee increased.

Guatemala’s Congress is coming under fire for “racism and discrimination”, specifically against indigenous women. This issue has not been plaguing Guatemala alone, it is an issue that has been prominent since the beginning of time. Indigenous women are not only discriminated against for their gender, but they are also being discriminated against for being indigenous. Women in Guatemala represent more than half the 15.8 million. After the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996, several mechanisms specifically for women were created. Laws were issued for women’s comprehensive development, domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, exploitation, femicide and other forms of violence. Despite all the progress, it still comes down to the

Guatemala is located in Central America with an estimated population of 15 million in 2012 and it is considered a lower-middle-income country which a 48 percent of the total represents the indigenous population. According to Lao Pena (2013) after the 1996 Peace Accords the country made progress but poverty remains high; the 2008-09 economic crises caused an increase in overall poverty from 51 percent in 2006 to 53.7 percent in 2011. In Central America Guatemala has the biggest economy but has the highest levels of inequality with poverty indicators, especially in rural and indigenous areas (The World Bank, 2014). In Guatemala, 58% of the poor sector is from the

Good morning, my name is Maria Yalibat and I want to talk about the Guatemalan civil war. This war took place for 36 years. It started in 1954 and a peace accords was signed in 1996.Guatemala’s civil war was the bloodiest during 1978-1983. The mass murders conducted was enough to be considered a genocide. My purpose today is to inform you of this war because the United States played a big role in this, which led to inhumane murder, economic distress and killing spree of innocent Mayans.

While there are many reasons that change fails to occur, there is indeed a lack of protection, strength of people’s freedom of speech, and corruption within the government. This failure to protect freedom of speech results in the often deadly threats of journalists, human right activists and even media outlets. There were approximately 87 complaints of threats and 8 journalists were killed in 2016. A photographer once took a picture of the Guatemalan President sleeping and claims say it cost him his job. The failure of strengthening Guatemalans’ freedom of speech also causes for citizens to be uninformed of what outrageous events occur in the government when they fear speaking out. Corruption also could lead to the disappearance of money and constituents trust for the government. These tragic events then feed to the malicious cycle of having corrupt government officials and resulting in no changes made to benefit the people of Guatemala. Uruguay ranks 74 when 100 is highly clean in a transparency index done in 2015 however Guatemala ranks 111 when 180 is the most corrupt. To maintain its low corruption Uruguay has adopted different policies. Uruguay has set a regulatory law that “balances communication sectors and regulates the rights of people on communication” because of the belief that media monopolies are indeed bad for democracy. This would allow

Jacobo Arbenz became president of Guatemala in 1951. Arbenz’s new laws or proposals , focused mainly on territory / land. What he wanted to achieve was to expropriate the land to all those who had more than specific amounts and distribute them among those who had nothing. He also looked for all those landowners to pay Taxes, which would help him generate capital to work and benefit the country. “Arbenz shocked UFCO officials even more when ne actually confiscated a huge chunk of the company’s land and offered $1.2 million as compensation” (Gonzalez 137). He basically took money / power from the rich to give to the poor, which obviously bothered many. The large companies that were being affected counterattacked and sued him for a considerable

Since the end of the Guatemalan Civil War, Guatemala has recovered from its extreme balance of payments deficit and is experiencing a growing economy through increased exports and production. While poverty is still an issue in the country, emphasis must be placed on the distribution of wealth and the efficiency of government, instead of programs like ECF which attempt to catalyze foreign direct investment. Guatemala is relatively stable and thus not a candidate for ECF.