San Luis, El Petén

San Luis on the map of Guatemala

San Luis is an approximately 8,000 inhabitants small town in Guatemala. San Luis is located in the southeast of the department of Petén, and is the administrative seat of the Municipalities of San Luis, which covers 2913 km ² and 50,000 inhabitants.

Geography

The town of San Luis is located approximately 35 km west of the border with Belize to 475 m altitude. Immediately east of the town into north-south trunk road CA 13 over, Flores, the capital pentene, with Izabal in the south and the rest of the country joins. From San Luis, there are 120 kilometers to Flores and around 360 km from Guatemala City.

As with all municipios Peténs the main village is located on a major thoroughfare, while the administrative territory stretches far back in sparsely populated regions. The municipality of San Luis is located in the western foothills of the Maya Mountains, yet reached here up to 600 m. In the south it is mostly limited by the rivers Gracias a Dios and Santa Isabel in the west of Río de la Pasión and one of its tributaries. In general, the climate is tropical - hot.

The adjacent municipios are Poptún in the north, Dolores in the northwest and Sayaxché in the West. In the south, San Luis borders the departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal, to the east by Belize.

History

The source rich area of ​​today's municipios San Luis was inhabited long before the Spanish conquest of Mopan Maya. In Ixkaj originated around 1700 the present town of San Luis. Already in 1708 he was raised to the municipality, which is confirmed in 1832 after the independence of Central America again. In the 19th century, lived only a few hundred people in the poor urban area of San Luis. More economic development brought in recently, the construction of Highway 13, CA This is accompanied, however, was also a steady increase in population, the ruthless deforestation and expansion of branch lines and the formation of dead-end villages.

Population

Besides Mopan Maya and Kekchi, there is a large part of the local population from Ladinos. The municipality consists of the main town of San Luis and from 127 hamlets.

Economy and Transport

San Luis lives mainly from agriculture, especially the cultivation of corn and beans. It is also important the forestry and timber industry. At the Highway 13 CA of the trade and the service sector plays a role. On the southeast, on the border with Izabal and Belize, branches in Modesto Méndez ( Izabal ) of the CA 13 is a highway to the west ( Franja Transversal del Norte), after the completion of the expansion work on Alta Verapaz and Quiché way to Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala will lead.