Chisec

Chisec on ​​the map of Guatemala

Chisec is a small town in Guatemala and administrative seat of the greater community ( municipality ) in the department of Alta Verapaz. In the 1000 km ² large municipality of about 40,000 people live in Chisec about 14,000.

Geography

Chisec is located north of Alta Verapaz to 240 m altitude. Reach the south of Municipalities still the foothills of the Sierra de Chama, one of the Middle Mountains, which run through the middle and southern part of Alta Verapaz. In the northeast Chisec has yet share in the hills of the Sierra de Chinajá. The remaining parts of the municipios are in the tropical lowlands dominated. Notable waters here include the rivers Sequixpur, San Simón, San Román, Limón and in the northwest of the Río Chixoy and the swamp Pantano Rubelsuj and in the southeast the Laguna Sapalau. The climate is tropical and generally hot.

Chisec bordered to the south by the municipality of San Pedro Carcha, the southwest and west of Coban, on the northwest by the Department of Quiché ( the Chixoy forms the short border ) and to the north by the department of Petén. By 2008, it bordered on the east by the municipality of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. In that year the rural community Raxruhá, which formed the eastern part Chisecs was collected into a separate municipality. Chisec lost a third of its territory and almost half of its inhabitants. The information about the current face of the municipios are inconsistent, of around 1,000 km ² is assumed. By 2008 Chisec was after Coban the municipality with the second largest expansion in Alta Verapaz.

Population

The population is mostly of Mayan ethnic group Kekchi, the rest are Ladinos.

History

Chisec is first mentioned in 1883 in official documents. Maybe it was a few decades earlier founded by people from the southerly San Pedro Carcha under the name " Espiritu Santo ".

Between 1979 and 1983 Chisec was so severely affected by the Guatemalan civil war that almost the entire population of the Municipalities fled, mostly to nearby Mexico. On the farm Xaman in the Comunidad La Aurora 8 de Octubre a massacre was perpetrated ( massacre of Xaman ) on 5 October 1995.

Economy and Transport

Chisec is just 80 km north of Coban, the capital of Alta Verapaz. From there it can be reached via a partial poorly developed direct connection ( via Cubilhuitz ), or alternatively a little further east along the national road 5 and Raxruhá. To attract tourists to Chisec happily labels as the gateway to the tropical lowlands, although the National Highway 5, which continues on to Petén, meanwhile, is closer to Raxruhá. From big traffic engineering and economic importance is the east-west highway Franja Transversal del Norte, which runs from Izabal in the east to Chisec and will continue to build from there until after Huehuetenango in the West. The most important industry is agriculture, is grown coffee, maize and rice. Of tourist interest is the feast in honor of the city's patron saints Peter and Paul, celebrated from 26th to 29th of June. Moreover, the municipality, in addition to the Laguna Sapalau numerous caves worth seeing ( in one of these is a cemetery of the Maya ). The " Laguna Lachuá National Park " ( Rokjá Pomtilá ) is located west of Chisec in the field of Municipalities Coban.