Guatemala

THE point at which Invader Carlos Castillo Armas slogged into Guatemala last week is a tangled jungle, exotically sprinkled with the elaborately carved volcanic rock columns left 1,500 years ago by the Mayas. Much of the rest of the country is also dank rainforest. Out of these green lowlands, along the Pacific Coast, rise mountain ranges, mistily blue and sullenly beautiful, that cup seven sparkling lakes and top out in 33 symmetrical volcanoes, each with a puff of cloud caught eternally around its peak. Fertile volcanic soil six feet thick covers the high plateaus and shaded valleys; it is in the highlands that 80% of Guatemalans live.

Area. 42,042 sq. mi., almost exactly the size of Tennessee.

Population. United Nations estimate: 3,048,000. A little over half are pure-blooded Indians; 38% mixed Indian-and-white, called Ladinos; the rest white. Nearly two-thirds are illiterate, and more than half of the illiterates do not even speak Spanish, using Indian dialects instead; 64% go barefoot. Nominally Roman Catholic, the Indians celebrate Christian festivals with pagan gusto, consult witch doctors oftener than the country's scant 200 priests. Guatemala City, the capital, is the only sizable city, with 293,000 residents; Quezaltenango, runner-up, has but 36,000.

History. In Christ's time, Mayan Indians, history's most brilliant aborigines, created in Guatemala a culture that included sculpture, arithmetic, writing and trade (in textiles and featherwork) over a net of fine roads--though they had neither domestic animals nor the wheel. But earthquakes, plagues and tribal wars so weakened them that in 1523-26 Spanish Captain Pedro de Alvarado's 120 horsemen and 500 foot soldiers were able to subjugate 2,000,000 Indians. Spain made Guatemala the viceregal capital of Central America, and enslaved the Indians as plantation labor; an Indian caught riding a horse got 100 lashes. The viceroyalty threw off the rule of Spain in 1823, later crumbled into five warring states. In the 105 revolution-torn years that followed, 18 dictators ruled Guatemala, beginning with the swineherd Rafael Carrera (1839-65) and reaching a savage climax under the megalomaniac General Jorge Ubico, who took power in 1931, held the Indians' wages as low as 3-c- a day, and was overthrown and exiled in 1944. Jacobo Arbenz is the country's second elected President since then.

Economy. Though legendarily a "banana republic," Guatemala actually grows six times as much coffee ($70 million worth a year) as bananas ($12 million yearly). Other exports: chicle, mahogany, essential oils. The U.S. buys 76% of Guatemala's products, sells Guatemala 64% of all that she buys. By paying high prices for coffee, the U.S. helps Guatemala keep the currency at par with the dollar, and the government budget healthy. Communist agitation has ruined a flourishing tourist trade once worth $2,500,000 a year.

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