Guatemala

Guatemala (Republic of Guatemala;Spanish: República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast.

Its size is just under 110,000 km² with an estimated population of 14,000,000.

Its capital is Guatemala City.

Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.

Guatemala is a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Guatemala is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Congress of the Republic. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Guatemala is divided into 22 departments (departamentos) and sub-divided into about 332 municipalities (municipios).

The departments include:

Alta Verapaz Baja Verapaz Chimaltenango Chiquimula Petén El Progreso El Quiché Escuintla Guatemala Huehuetenango Izabal

Jalapa Jutiapa Quetzaltenango Retalhuleu Sacatepéquez San Marcos Santa Rosa Sololá Suchitepéquez Totonicapán Zacapa

Guatemala is heavily centralized. Transportation, communications, business, politics, and the most relevant urban activity takes place in Guatemala City. There is only one highway that traverses the greater communities of the country. Some coastal towns are accessible only through the coast by boats.

Guatemala City has about 2 million inhabitants within the city limits and more than 5 million within in the urban area. This is a significant percentage of the population

According to the CIA World Factbook, Guatemala's GDP per capita is US$5,000; however, this developing country still faces many social problems and is among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America.[27] The distribution of income remains highly unequal with approximately 29%[28] of the population living below the poverty line and just over 400,000 (3.2%) unemployed. The World Bank considers three quarters of the population of Guatemala to be living in poverty. [29]

Remittances from Guatemalans who fled to the United States during the civil war now constitute the largest single source of foreign income (more than the combined value of exports and tourism).[30]

In last years the exporter sector of nontraditional products has grown dynamically representing more than 53 percent of global exports. Some of the main products for export are fruits, vegetables, flowers, handicrafts, cloths and others

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