Fray Bartolome de Las Casas

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Fray Bartolome de Las Casas
Coordinates: 15 ° 51 ′  N , 89 ° 52 ′  W
Map: Guatemala
marker
Fray Bartolome de Las Casas​
Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas on the map of Guatemala
Basic data
Country Guatemala
Department Alta Verapaz
City foundation May 3, 1980
Residents 44,538  (2002)
- in the metropolitan area 6,000
Detailed data
surface 1229 km 2
Population density 36 people / km 2
height 146  m
Waters Río Sebol
Post Code 16015
Time zone UTC −6
City patron Santa Cruz (festival: April 30th to May 4th)
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Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas is a place in Guatemala and the administrative seat of the large municipality of the same name in the Alta Verapaz department . Around 50,000 people live in the 1229 km² municipality, and around 7,000 in Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. The town and the municipality are after the Spanish Dominicans - brother ( Fray ) Bartolome de Las Casas designated to the area in the 16th century peaceful missionary work .

geography

Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas is located in the northern lowlands of Alta Verapaz near the border with the neighboring Petén district . In the south, the municipality in the foothills of the Sierra de Chamá reaches a height of 700 to 800 m, to the north it drops down to about 100 m on the upper reaches of the Río Sebol . The climate is tropical hot. Only in the 1960s was the malaria rampant here contained by government measures .

Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas borders in the north and east on the municipalities of Sayaxché and San Luis in Petén, in the southeast on Chahal (Alta Verapaz), in the south on Cahabón , in the southwest on San Pedro Carchá and in the west on the Municipio formed in 2008 Raxruhá (before Chisec ).

history

The place Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas was created in the early 1960s as part of an agricultural development project by the government a few kilometers east of the Sebol settlement in the inaccessible north of Alta Verapaz. Originally almost only Kekchí - Maya lived here , who are still predominant today. The numerous immigrants come from various regions and Mayan ethnic groups of Guatemala, only about 15 percent are Ladinos today . The strong population growth led the government in Guatemala City to make Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas a municipality on May 3, 1980. The municipality was separated from the neighboring municipalities Chahal and Cahabón. The large community of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas today comprises 21 rural communities ( Aldeas ) (with their own "auxiliary mayors") with a total of 78 hamlets.

Economy and Transport

Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas is one of the places benefiting from the construction of the east-west highway Franja Transversal del Norte . This transversal is intended to better develop the very remote and inaccessible areas in the north of the departments of Izabal , Alta Verapaz , Quiché and Huehuetenango . The eastern part from Modesto Méndez (on the border with Belize ) to Chisec was built several years ago (from 1975), so that Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas can use this route and the CA 13 (Izabal-Petén) and the Atlantic trunk road CA 9 connects with the main economic centers in eastern Guatemala and with Guatemala City (420 km). In addition, a few kilometers west of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, near Sebol, the partly poorly developed and winding national road 5, a very old north-south connection from Peten via Cobán (112 km from Fray Bartolomé) to Guatemala City ( 325 km). The most important branch of the economy is still agriculture and forestry. Despite all efforts, the municipality continues to suffer from underdevelopment.

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