Chiquimula Department

Chiquimula is a department of Guatemala and is located in the east of the country ( region III). It covers 2376 km ² and has about 350,000 inhabitants. The capital of the department is the city of Chiquimula.

Chiquimula bordered to the north by the department of Zacapa, to the east by Honduras, El Salvador and to the south by the Departamento Jutiapa, on the west by Jalapa.

Provincial nature

The department Chiquimula is located in a geographical and climatic transition zone between the last foothills of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas in the south of Guatemala, in the east on the border with Honduras running Sierra del Merendon and the north of it, which opens to the Caribbean towards the lowlands of the Río Motagua. In Chiquimula outweighs a hill and low mountain range, which rises to over 1,500 m rarely. In the far south, on the border with El Salvador, the Cerro Montecristo is the highest elevation of 2,146 m. The north is dominated by the situated on an altitude of 400 m valleys around the capital Chiquimula and to Jocotán. At its northern end, several, large parts of the department unite draining rivers in the Rio Grande, which flows, in turn, in the neighboring Zacapa in the Río Motagua. The climate is temperate to hot, the temperatures are generally 14 to 27 ° C in the lowlands 30 degrees can also be significantly exceeded. The average annual rainfall is 1,100 mm.

Population

The population is mostly of Spanish descent, and there are some minor Chortí communities. The approximately 350,000 inhabitants of the department are living in 11 municipios ( large municipalities or counties ):

The Department as state administrative district is headed by a delegated by the central government governor. The Municipalities are autonomous local authorities with elected mayors and elected assemblies and are divided into Aldeas and Pueblos ( rural communities ) and in Caseríos, Parajes, Estates, Rancherias ( hamlets and farms ).

Economy and Transport

The economy is dominated by agriculture. Are cultivated beans ( with the best in Guatemala), corn, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, and various fruits and vegetables. The extraction of raw materials such as zinc, lead and silver plays only a minor role. The tourism benefits from the pilgrimage town of Esquipulas, from the volcano located in the southwest Ipala ( 1,650 m ) with its water park lagoon and removed from the through traffic to Honduras ( Copan ) and El Salvador. About the running in the adjacent Zacapa Atlantic Highway CA 9 Chiquimula is well connected to Guatemala City. The branch line from Zacapa after Chiquimula and El Salvador is no longer in operation. The city Chiquimula has an airfield for general aviation.

History

Chiquimula was before the Spanish conquest dominated by the Chortí, who had immigrated from the south of present-day Mexico since the 10th century. From 1530 they were defeated by the Spaniards and their mercenaries who fought the Chortí among others Mictlán, Eskirpujá and Copantl. During the colonial period, formed a Chiquimula designated as Corregimiento de Chiquimula large administrative district, which included ( at different times ) the present departments Jutiapa, Jalapa, El Progreso, Zacapa and Izabal. On the basis of the corresponding political weight Chiquimula tried shortly after the independence from Spain in 1822 to form their own state, but this was prevented by the central government of Guatemala with military means. Chiquimula formed henceforth with Zacapa an administrative district, the government aufteilte in the two existing departments on November 10, 1871.

In the 19th century Chiquimula was due to its strategic importance, several times a battleground where the forces of Guatemala against the alleged of the neighboring states. On February 2, 1852 General Rafael Carrera struck at San José La Arada, the united army of Honduras and El Salvador.

For a long time Chiquimula, which likes to describe itself as the "Pearl of the East", coined from the Sanctuary of Esquipulas, the target of numerous creditors from all over Central America. The local church with its Cristo Negro was in 1961 by Pope John XXIII. raised to the basilica. 1986 found in Esquipulas at the end of the Guatemalan civil war of important international negotiations over peace, democratization and economic cooperation in Central America instead.