* 1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.

Central America then emerged as a distinct political entity upon the independence of the Federal Republic of Central America a representative democracy with its capital at Guatemala City.

Astronaut View of Guatemala City

Guatemala City ( in full, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción ; locally known as Guatemala or Guate ), is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America.

Within the confines of modern Guatemala City is the ancient Maya city of Kaminaljuyu.

The center of Kaminaljuyu was located a short distance from the oldest part of Guatemala City.

In Spanish colonial times, Guatemala City was a small town.

Guatemala City was the scene of the declaration of independence of Central America from Spain, and became the capital of the United Provinces of Central America in 1821.

Cathedral of Guatemala City

Guatemala City is the economic, governmental, and cultural capital of the Republic.

Guatemala City offers all the modern amenities along with important historic sites that a world class city can be expected to have ranging from an IMAX Theater to the Ícaro film festival ( Festival Ícaro ) featuring films produced in Guatemala and Central America.

Despite its location in the tropics and the many micro climates found within the country, Guatemala City ’ s elevation and the resulting moderating influence of the higher altitude enable it to enjoy a subtropical highland climate ( Köppen Cwb ), though depending on location, it also borders on a tropical savanna climate ( Köppen Aw ).

Guatemala City is generally mild, almost springlike, throughout the course of the year.

Guatemala City Zone 10, aerial view

Guatemala City is subdivided into 22 zones designed by the urban engineering of Raúl Aguilar Batres, each one with its own streets and avenues, making it pretty easy to find addresses in the city.

The city's metro area has recently grown very rapidly and has absorbed most of the neighboring municipalities of Villa Nueva, San Miguel Petapa, Mixco, San Juan Sacatepequez, San José Pinula, Santa Catarina Pinula, Fraijanes, San Pedro Ayampuc, Amatitlán, Villa Canales, Palencia and Chinautla forming what is now known as the Guatemala City Metropolitan Area.

Guatemala City, zone 4.

For this reason along with several others, Guatemala City has experienced some growth problems such as transportation saturation, availability of safe potable water in some areas at certain times as well as increased crime.

In other words, Guatemala City faces problems common to many other rapidly expanding cities.

Guatemala City monuments, all around the city streets.

The President also conferred with emissaries from Guatemala and Nepal who are seeking more foreign aid.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua also are negotiating a free trade agreement with Canada, and negotiations started on 2006 for a free trade agreement with Colombia.

It is also the capital city of the local Municipio de Guatemala, and Guatemala Department.

The city also has some of the most expensive private schools in Central America, The American School of Guatemala and The Mayan International School.

It was not only the Greeks and Romans that produced graffiti: the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala also contains ancient examples.

The Guatemalan government had to fight the pressure because although U. S. had recognized, in words, that Guatemala had the right to conduct their own politics and business, U. S. representatives also claimed that they had to interfere because UFCo was their company that had brought in a lot of profit and harming the interests of that company was harming the U. S. economy.

* Other-Garífuna, descended from Black Africans and indigenous peoples from St. Vincent's, live mainly in Livingston and Puerto Barrios, and other blacks and mulattos ; Asians, mostly of Chinese descent, and also a growing Koreans in Guatemala and in nearby Mixco, currently numbering about 10, 000.

Guatemala also originated the idea for, and is the seat of, the Central American Parliament ( PARLACEN ).

Under the special agreement, also known as the compromise that was signed in December 2008 by Belize and Guatemala it was agreed that if the people of both nations approved, by way of a simultaneous referendum on the same day, that the dispute would proceed to the ICJ.

Guatemala also has consulates in Ciudad Hidalgo, Comitán and Tapachula.

In recent years the number of violent crimes reported by U. S. citizens has steadily increased, though the number of Americans traveling to Guatemala has also increased.

For example, the K ' iche ' language spoken in Guatemala has the inflectional prefixes k-and x-to mark incompletive and completive aspect ; Mandarin Chinese has the aspect markers-le 了 ,-zhe 着, zài-在, and-guò 过 to mark the perfective, durative stative, durative progressive, and experiential aspects, and also marks aspect with adverbs ; and English marks the continuous aspect with the verb to be coupled with present participle and the perfect with the verb to have coupled with past participle.

He would also successfully establish the border with Nicaragua and resist an invasion from Guatemala in 1906.

López Gutiérrez also solicited support from the liberal government of Guatemala and even from the conservative regime in Nicaragua.

Honduran domestic manufacturers also suffered from increased Central American competition resulting from a trade liberalization pact signed in May 1991 by Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

The court also found that certain transborder incursions into the territory of Guatemala and Costa Rica, in 1982, 1983 and 1984, were imputable to the Government of Nicaragua.

For example, it is used in French presidential, legislative, and cantonal elections, and also to elect the presidents of Afghanistan, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, Uruguay, Zimbabwe — see: Table of voting systems by nation.

Taco Bell is also present in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Guam, Aruba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and on AAFES military bases in Japan, Germany, Iraq, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

These bands also are present in Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama.

From the 16th century through 1821 Central America formed the Captaincy General of Guatemala, sometimes known also as the Kingdom of Guatemala, composed by a part of the state of Chiapas ( nowadays Mexico ), Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

El Salvador has 545 km of borders, including 342 km of borders with Honduras and 203 km with Guatemala.

In an attempt to control rapid growth of the city, the municipal government ( Municipalidad de Guatemala ) headed by longtime Mayor Álvaro Arzú, has implemented a plan to control its growth based on transects along its important arterial roads and exhibitting Transit-oriented development ( TOD ) characteristics.

Guatemala City's population has experienced drastic growth since the 1970s with the influx of indigenous migrants from the outlying departments as well as a large influx of foreign groups.

Guatemala City has been affected several times by earthquakes.

By 2500 BC, small settlements were developing in Guatemala ’ s Pacific lowlands in such places as Tilapa, La Blanca, Ocós, El Mesak, and Ujuxte, where the oldest pieces of ceramic pottery from Guatemala has been found.

Northern Guatemala has particularly high densities of Late Pre-classic sites, including Naachtun, Xulnal, El Mirador, Porvenir, Pacaya, La Muralla, Nakbé, El Tintal, Wakná ( formerly Güiro ), Uaxactún, and Tikal.

This has brought on difficulties for Guatemala as more people puts pressure in the nation's economic progress in a country where 70 % live in dire poverty, and political stability was weakened by an inability to have effective population growth programs.

The 1996 signing of peace accords, which ended 36 years of civil war, removed a major obstacle to foreign investment, and Guatemala since then has pursued important reforms and macroeconomic stabilization.

On 1 July 2006, the Central American Free Trade Agreement ( CAFTA ) entered into force between the US and Guatemala and has since spurred increased investment in the export sector.

* Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

Guatemala has a longstanding claim to a large portion of Belize ; the territorial dispute caused problems with the United Kingdom and later with Belize following its 1981 independence from the UK.

* Mexico has an embassy in Guatemala City and a consulate in Quetzaltenango and in Tecún Umán.

* Guatemala has an embassy in Mexico City and consulates-general in Oaxaca City, Tenosique, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Veracruz City.

Guatemala has an embassy in Moscow.

Russia has an embassy in Guatemala City.