Guatemala is my nation. Part 1 of 4.

Guatemala is my nation, my birthplace, where most of my memories, my mother, grandparents, siblings, cousins, uncles, friends, lovers, children, education, business, day to day.

My nation has had a convulsive history from pre-Hispanic origins, where the first known inhabitants of this land, comprising more than a dozen tribes or peoples, each with a different language, customs, how they will govern more or less same with a ruler and a caste system. Among these tribes or peoples, living in constant conflict, some historians dare to say that wars were other battles that were small with few deaths and some slaves and many grudges.

About Tikal and the “Maya world” some historians speak of the assumption of about two million slaves from other tribes, which were used by Mayan leaders in the construction of ceremonial centers and trying to hold so many slaves demanded clearing of forests for agriculture which in the end, the lack of water, he collapsed the local ecology, which implies disease, epidemics, hunger, death.

When the Spanish conquered this part of the world the task was relatively easy to find towns so small and divided among them, some of these people provided information about the other and vice versa at one end to the Spanish conquest efficient compared to the one in what we now know as Mexico.

The conquistadors were gradually taking the lands of the indigenous people of Guatemala, and then their children, the Creoles were open space and its privileges. For the Indians, already stripped, used them as slaves and then congregated in towns known as "Indian people".

Poverty has been more than noticeable, since it has been documented form of government since colonial times, government-with support from the Catholic church until 1776 - have given privileges to certain individuals or groups in exchange for a fee or bribe This practice will ensure protection of the rulers of the day at the expense of the rest, which was enrichment of the commercial product without competitors or few competitors, the leaders also could allocate land, permission to exploit natural resources, exclusive licenses to export or import.

The power that the rulers in the economy since then has been as strong as strong as the degree of distortion of economic agents in the allocation of resources, salaries, interest rates, all in the context of an economy "mercantilist" or with strong state control and distribution of privileges. Result: a country with a weak economy with deep poverty.