Guatemala is a very beautiful country with a very tragic past.
One has only to refer to the Spanish conquest and the colonization which followed in the sixteenth century; the devastating earthquakes which destroyed the original capital, Santiago de Guatemala, in 1651 and another, which claimed 22,000 lives in 1976; and the political history of the last thirty years, during which it is estimated that there have been over 30,000 assassinations, kidnappings, and killings for political purposes.
Guatemala-a new beginning-mission report-1987-eng (Full text in English, PDF)