Guatemala is divided in 22 departments that are organized in 8 development regions declared by the Guatemalan government. [1]
Alta Verapaz is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and Baja Verapaz, and to the west by El Quiché.
Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. In 2018, the population of the department was 299,476. The capital is Salamá.
Cahabón is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. It lies at an altitude of 250m above sea level and covers an area of 900 km². The population is 31,425. The annual festival is from September 1 to 8.
Fray Bartolomé de las Casas is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. The population is 31,611. It lies at an altitude of 170m above sea level and covers an area of 1,229 km². The annual festival is April 30-May 4. It is named after the 15th-century Spanish priest, bishop, and writer Bartolomé de Las Casas.
Panzós is a town with a population of 22,068 and a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz.
San Cristóbal Verapaz is a town, with a population of 20,961, and a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. It is located approximately 29 km from Cobán, the capital of Alta Verapaz and about 210 km from Guatemala City. San Cristóbal belongs to the Pokimchi' linguistic area. Its main income source is the «Cobán» shoe factory, which specializes in industrial rubber boots, which are sold both locally and internationally.
San Juan Chamelco is a town and a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. The municipality is situated at 1,350 metres above sea level and covers an area of 228 km2. The annual festival is on June 24. At the 2018 census, the population of the municipality was 57,456 and that of the town of San Juan Chamelco was 13,264.
Santa Cruz Verapaz is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. The municipality lies at an altitude of 1,406 metres above sea level. It has a population of 32,042 and covers an area of 99.9 km². The annual festival is May 1-May 5.
Tamahú is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz.
Tucurú is a small town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. The municipality population was 43,473 at the 2018 census.
San Miguel Chicaj is a town and municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. San Miguel Chicaj has an area of 280 Km², which makes one of the largest municipality of Baja Verapaz Department. It has a population of 33,131, mostly of achí background.
Granados is a municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. It was named after former Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados in 1893.
Purulhá is a town and municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. It is situated at 1,570 m above sea level. The municipality covers an area of 536 km² and the population was 56,822 at the 2018 census. The annual festival is June 10-June 13.
Guatemala has a network of 914 mm narrow gauge railroads, passenger and freight trains currently run.
Club Social y Deportivo Cobán Imperial, nicknamed Los Príncipes Azules, is a Guatemalan football club based in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. They play their home games in the Estadio Verapaz.
Santa Catalina la Tinta is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. It is located in the hot Polochic River valley. It was originally part of the municipality of Panzós, but was given separate municipal status in 1999. La Tinta is the commercial center of the lower Polochic valley, and merchants and shoppers clog the town's streets especially on the official market days of Tuesdays and Thursdays. The town of Santa Catalina la Tinta is located at 110 km from Cobán and 278 km from Guatemala City and has a population of 20,552.
Poqomchiʼ is a Mayan language spoken by the Poqomchiʼ Maya of Guatemala, and is very closely related to Poqomam. Its two main dialects, eastern and western, were spoken by 90,000 or so people in the year 2000, in Purulhá, Baja Verapaz, and in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. It is also the predominant language in the municipality of Chicamán, which borders Alta Verapaz.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Verapaz is a Latin suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Guatemala.
The Poqomchiʼ are a Maya people in Guatemala. Their indigenous language is also called Poqomchiʼ, and is related to the Quichean–Poqom branch. Poqomchí is spoken in Baja Verapaz (Purulhá) and in Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. It is also spoken in Chicamán.
A German Guatemalan is a citizen of Guatemala whose ancestors were German settlers who arrived in the 19th and 20th century. Guatemala had a massive immigration of Germans in the nineteenth century. The government of Justo Rufino Barrios provided them with farmlands for coffee in the departments of Quetzaltenango, Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz, and by the early 20th century Germans populated Guatemala City, Zacapa and Jutiapa. Guatemala currently has a strong community of Germans who make up the majority of European immigrants in the country, and it is also the most numerous German community in all Central American countries.