Short answers, pulled from the story.
Guatemala is a country in northern Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north and west, Belize to the northeast, Honduras to the east, and El Salvador to the southeast, with the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Gulf of Honduras to the northeast.
The name Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl word Cuauhtemallan, meaning "place of many trees." The Mexica originally used it for the Kaqchikel city of Iximche, and the Spanish extended it to the whole country during the colonial period.
Guatemala proclaimed its independence from Spain on the 15th of September 1821. It later joined the First Mexican Empire, was part of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1823 to 1841, and declared itself an independent republic on the 21st of March 1847.
The Guatemalan Civil War lasted from 1960 to 1996 between the US-backed government and leftist rebels. According to the REMHI report some 200,000 people died, and the Historical Clarification Commission attributed more than 93% of documented human rights violations to the military government, estimating that Maya Indians made up 83% of the victims.
The United States, primed by the Cold War to see the Guatemalan Revolution as communist, and the United Fruit Company, whose profits were affected by labor reforms and the Decree 900 land reform, opposed President Jacobo Arbenz. In August 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Operation PBSuccess, and a CIA-armed force of 480 men invaded on the 18th of June 1954, leading to Arbenz's resignation.
Bernardo Arevalo is the candidate of the center-left Semilla Movement who won a landslide in Guatemala's August 2023 presidential election. He was sworn in just after midnight on the 15th of January 2024, is the son of former president Juan Jose Arevalo, and cut the presidential salary by 25% on the 23rd of April 2024.