Chahal

Chahal
Coordinates: 15 ° 45 ′  N , 89 ° 34 ′  W Chahal​ Chahal on the map of Guatemala
Basic data
Country	Guatemala
Department	Alta Verapaz
City foundation	September 5, 1903
Residents	16,853  (2002)
- in the metropolitan area	1,500
City insignia
Detailed data
surface	336 km 2
Population density	50 people / km 2
height	240  m
Waters	Río Chiyú
Post Code	16014
Time zone	UTC −6
City patron	San Agutsín (festival: August 23-28 )
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Chahal (also called San Fernando Chahal or Chaal ) is a place in Guatemala and the administrative seat of the large municipality of the same name ( Municipio ) in the Alta Verapaz department . Around 20,000 people live in the 336 km² municipality and around 2,000 in Chahal.

geography

Chahal is located in the eastern lowlands of Alta Verapaz on the Franja Transversal del Norte (FTN), an important east-west long-distance connection along the border with Peten and Mexico . After Coban , capital of Alta Verapaz, there are almost 150 km, Guatemala City about 370 km away. The south of the municipality still has a share of the foothills of the Sierra de Santa Cruz , which here in Cerro Tabol reaches 718 meters. The tropical lowland in the north is around 200 m above sea level. The Río Chiyú forms the northern border.

The municipality borders in the north-east on San Luis (Petén), in the south-east on Livingston ( Izabal ), in the south-west on Santa María Cahabón and in the north-west on Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas .

population

The local population comes mainly from the Kekchí , a smaller part are Ladinos . The people live mainly from agriculture.

history

The territory has been inhabited by Maya since prehistory . In the colonial viceroyalty of New Spain , the territory belonged to Izabal .

On November 2, 1887, the government in Guatemala City released Chahal by decree from the Izabal department and added it to the Alta Verapaz department, where it was initially administered by the municipality of Santa María Cahabón as a rural municipality ( Aldea ). Influential personalities such as Manuel de la Cruz Tot and Manuel Flores, who felt closely connected to Chahal , had campaigned for this . Under the government of Manuel José Estrada Cabrera , the Aldea Chahal was raised on September 5, 1903 to the independent Municipio San Agustín Chahal .

On May 3, 1980, the rural community of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas was measured from the Chahals area and raised to the status of an independent municipality. Since this happened under the government of President Fernando Romeo Lucas García , San Agustín Chahal was renamed San Fernando Chahal . On April 3, 1983, the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt had the main community of Viejo Chahal ("Old Chahal" ) forcibly relocated to Finca Rubel Inup (Kekchí: La Ceiba ) by order 5409 .

On July 8, 2009, the Kekchí settlements Finca Renacimiento and Finca Las Flores were evacuated by 700 police and military forces. The evacuation command advanced in 62 vehicles and carried an armored vehicle. The ancestor of a tank, on the occasion of an eviction, represented a demonstrative escalation on the part of the government Álvaro Colom Caballero . The approximately 30 families of the Renacimiento settlement and the approximately 65 families of the Las Flores settlement were evicted. At 9:30 a.m., the police began to set the 65 houses on fire with clothing, food and agricultural equipment. The eviction took place on a complaint from the local latifundist .

The evacuated pointed to procedural errors during the evacuation, the eviction order was issued for the property 5,422, sheet 69 in the 93rd land register of Alta Verapaz. The municipality of El Renacimiento is located on property 270 sheet 68 in the 52nd land register of Alta Verapaz.

During the civil war in Guatemala there were opposing developments in the distribution of land property. On the one hand, the award of land titles was a popular purchase of the benevolence of the settlers and those who were forced to move. On the other hand, numerous communities that were suspected of cooperating with the guerrillas were massacred or expelled through state terror. The so-called land reforms during the civil war were settlement projects that favored investors and the military. In 1996, 70% of the arable land was owned by 2% of the population. In order to create a livelihood as farmers , the Fondo de Tierra funding program was set up within the framework of the 1986–1996 peace treaties, with the support of the IMF and the World Bank , in order to popularize the movement of real estate. The Fondo de Tierra is accused of being ineffective in allocating land. The price of the land, the criteria for lending and the level of interest exclude parts of the population from purchasing land. In 2007, more than 80 parishes in Guatemala were occupied and the squatters demanded that their status be legalized.

An oil pipeline runs through the Comunidad La Peñita in Chahal from Rubelsalto, Alta Verapaz, to Puerto Barrios .

Attractions

• Balneario Las Conchas or Sepemech are an ensemble of waterfalls and pools .
• Balneario Oxlajuj ha (Three waters on K'eqchi ').

religion

In addition to the Roman Catholic Church , the Kekchí know the bisexual Tzultuká , the soul of the Cerros and valleys. In Chahal and Chisec it is reported that Tz¸ltak'a fell in love with the woman Dominga and gave her a flower as a sign that she wanted to be introduced to her father. When the daughter gave the flower to her father, she turned into a monja blanca made of silver , which convinced the father that Tzakltak'a wanted to marry his daughter. According to legend, the two live inside a Cerros.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ infocoban.com ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Douglas Martín Santizo Aquino, MUNICIPIO DE CHAHAL, “COSTOS Y RENTABILIDAD DE UNIDADES PECUARIAS (ENGORDE DE GANADO BOVINO)” (PDF; 9.72 MB)
3. ↑ Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas, July 8, 2009 Radiopatrullas de la Policia Nacional Civil proceden al desalojo de 95 familias Q´eq´chi
4. ↑ El Periodico , 27 de febrero de 2006 Irregularidades en el manejo del Fontierras  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ ci.net.gt  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 54 kB)  
6. ↑ Prensa Libre , 30 de noviembre de 2006, Dañan tubería de oleoducto en Chahal ( Memento of the original dated May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ El Periodico , 2006 / diciembre / 01, Pobladores suspenden protestas en Alta Verapaz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Prensa Libre , 2006 / diciembre / 01, Campesinos de esta población y Fray Bartolomé de las Casas deponen acciones de hecho ( Memento of the original of May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Prensa Libre , 2009 / April / 06, Un paseo por Las Conchas ( Memento of the original of May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• General information (Spanish)
• History of the Municipios (Spanish)