Baja Verapaz Department

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baja Verapaz
El Salvador Honduras Belize Mexiko Petén Huehuetenanggo Quiché Alta Verapaz Izabal Zacapa El Progreso Baja Verapaz Totonicapán Quetzaltenango San Marcos Retalhuleu Suchitepéquez Sololá Chimaltenango Guatemala Jalapa Chiquimula Sacatepéquez Escuintla Santa Rosa JutiapaBaja Verapaz in Guatemala.svg
About this picture
Location of Baja Verapaz in Guatemala
Data
Capital Salamá
population 307,200 calculation 2016
surface 3,124 km²
Population density 98 inhabitants / km²
structure 8th
Highest elevation 2504
ISO 3166-2 GT-BV
Website inforpressca.com
Coat of arms of Baja Verapaz.gif
Baja Verapaz coat of arms

Baja Verapaz is a department of Guatemala and, together with Alta Verapaz, forms Region II in the middle and north of the country. The department covers 3,124 square kilometers and has around 307,200 inhabitants. The capital of Baja Verapaz is Salamá .

Baja Verapaz borders in the north on Alta Verapaz, in the west on El Quiché , in the south on the Department of Guatemala and in the southeast on El Progreso .

National nature

Baja Verapaz is located in a geographical and climatic transition zone between the cool highlands in southwest Guatemala and the warm and humid lowlands in the east and north. In the far west, Baja Verapaz still has a share in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas . The eastern foothills continue in the Sierra de Chuacús, which crosses the department in a west-east direction and then merges into the Sierra de las Minas . To the north of the Sierra de Chuacús, the land is drained by numerous rivers that flow into the Chixoy reservoir . In the south, several smaller rivers flow into the Río Motagua . In the middle of the department there is an extensive, dry valley landscape. The north and east are more humid and greener. Even larger coherent cloud and cloud forests have been preserved here. The average annual rainfall is 750 mm, the daytime temperatures are usually between 17 and 27 degrees Celsius, in some drier areas they can also rise to 38 degrees. When it comes to flora and fauna , the quetzal and the orchid Monja blanca (Lycaste skinneri), two national symbols of Guatemala, are of particular importance.

population

The Maya make up about 57 percent of the total population. The Achí are concentrated in the west of Baja Verapaz, in the south there are some cakchiquel communities, otherwise the Pocomchí predominate in the countryside , and the mestizos known as "Ladinos" in the cities and larger towns . The total of around 250,000 inhabitants of the Alta Verapaz department live in eight municipalities ( large municipalities or districts ):

Cubulco Santa Cruz El Chol
Granados Purulhá
Rabinal Salamá
San Jerónimo San Miguel Chicaj

As a state administrative district , the department is headed by a governor sent by the central government . The Municipios are independent regional authorities with elected mayors and representatives of the people and are subdivided into Aldeas and Pueblos ( villages ) as well as Caseríos, Parajes, Fincas, Rancherías ( hamlets and farms ).

Economy and Transport

Traditionally the most important branches of the economy are agriculture (sugar cane, grain, corn, vegetables) and handicrafts (textiles, ceramics, wickerwork). The Chixoy hydropower plant, located in the north of the department, covers more than half of the national energy needs, provided the water level allows it. Baja Verapaz benefits from the flow of tourists to Alta Verapaz along the well-developed CA 14, which connects the department to Guatemala City via El Rancho and CA 8 .

Attractions

The nature reserve "Biotopo Mario Dary Rivera (Biotopo del Quetzal)" is located on the highway to Alta Verapaz south of Purulhá , which was established to protect the native flora and fauna, especially the Quetzal . The waterfalls of Chilascó are located southeast of the Quetzal biotope.

history

During the “ classical era ”, today's Baja Verapaz was ruled by Pocom-Maya. The spreading south and east Quiché subjected the Pocom later, either emigrated or mingled with the Quiché. This is how the Pocomam and the Pocomchí came into being . The warlike Achí had retained a certain independence .

The attempt of the Spaniards to conquer the region by military means failed particularly because of the Achí . That is why it was soon called Tezulutlán (also Tucurutlán, Tuzulutrán or Tesulutlán) which means something like "war zone". It was not until 1537 that the Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas and a few friars succeeded in peacefully Christianizing and thus ruling the Indians living there . Soon the name of the region, which at the time also included Petén , Belize and parts of Izabal , changed to Verapaz , meaning “true peace”. Even during the long colonial period, the Dominicans shaped the region in social and economic terms.

The Republic of Guatemala established the Verapaz Department in 1825, the administrative seat of which was initially in Cobán , and then from 1833 in Salamá. On May 4, 1877, it was finally divided into the two departments of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. The immigration of Germans to Alta Verapaz, which began at this time, also brought about a certain economic modernization boost in Baja Verapaz, but it was not integrated into the neo-colonial economic structure of the neighboring department.

Baja Verapaz suffered badly in the Guatemalan civil war that raged from 1960 to 1996 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Guatemala: Departments & Cities - Population Statistics in Maps and Tables. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .

Coordinates: 15 ° 6 ′  N , 90 ° 19 ′  W