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Guatemala
is a small country covering only 108,889 Kms2.
Its ten million inhabitants live mainly in the southern highlands that
run parallel to the pacific coast. The
Petén jungle lies to the north making up two thirds of the nation. At present,
this region is sparsely populated but the jungle conceals the vestiges of the
first cities that gave way to the Mayan culture.
Guatemala
is defined by an "indigenous presence".
The highlands are populated by more than twenty ethnic groups that
originated from the Maya. These
people live in small rural villages and towns and make up more than 50% of the
population of this small country. The
rest of the inhabitants are mestizos, whites that descend from European settlers
that arrived during the past four hundred fifty years, afro-Caribbean blacks and
other race and cultural combinations that complete the complex social reality in
Guatemala
. The economy in
Guatemala
is based on the indigenous agricultural areas and the
great sugarcane, coffee or cotton plantations belonging to influential
landowners on the pacific coast. During
this century a small industrial manufacturing sector that exports textiles and
products for the Central American market has begun to grow.
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