Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera
President

(pronounced "al-FOHN-soh an-TOE-nee-oh poor-TEE-oh ca-BRAR-ah")

"I have rejected the intervention of the state in the economy, the class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat. That was an era of romanticism in my life."

Guatemala lies between Mexico to its north, El Salvador to its south, Honduras to the southeast, and Belize to the east. Guatemala's territory, comprising 108,890 sq km (42,042 sq mi), touches both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Geographically, the country is divided into three regions. The Northern Plain, sparsely populated and covered largely by tropical rain forests, is the site of many ancient Mayan ruins, most notably Tikal. The Central Highlands, where most of Guatemala's 13.3 million people (2002 estimate) live, is a region dominated by a chain of mountains with many volcanoes, some of which are active. The beauty and climate of...