Huehuetenango

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Huehuetenango is a city in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The population was about 88,600 people at the end of 2003*. The city is located at 15°32′N 91°47′W, 269 km from Guatemala City.

Huehuetenango was founded by Gonzalo de Alvarado in 1524** after the Spanish conquest of the Maya capital of Zaculeu, the Pre-Columbian capital of the Mam Maya people. Many people of Mam decent still live in and around Huehuetenago, and the ruins of Zaculeu is a tourist attraction a short distance from town.

Former president Efraín Ríos Montt was born in Huehuetenango. Huehuetenango's primary export is coffee.

A former G-2 agent says that the base he worked at in Huehuetenango maintained its own crematorium and "processed" abductees by chopping off limbs, singeing flesh and administering electric shocks. At least three of the recent G-2 chiefs have been paid by the CIA, according to U.S. and Guatemalan intelligence sources.[1]

• Censo Nacional de Poblacion -INE-. November 2003.
  • Annotations: Edwin Cardona