Chat in San Juan Cotzal

San Juan Cotzal is a municipality in the department of Quiché, in the Republic of Guatemala. It is located in the foothills of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes and the Sierra de Chamá, and borders on the north with the municipality of Chajul, on the east with Uspantán, on the south with Cunén and on the west with Nebaj. The population is distributed on the municipal head and 32 rural communities. By the year 2002 it is estimated that 70% of the population was of the Mayan Ixil ethnic group, 25% of the Quiche ethnic group and 5% Ladino.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1524, the Mayan Ixil region was a single town, a group that had detached itself from the Mayan Mam people who lived in the north-western part of the country. It has been populated since the classic period of the Mayan civilization, probably before 200 d. C., which is evidenced because archaeological sites of the late post-classical period have been found in Cajixay, where there are remains of that period -such as stone sculptures, painted ceramic vessels and pieces of jade-. The area was a center of great importance and maintained commercial relations with Tikal during the late classical period -559 to 900 AD. C.-. When Spaniards and indigenous Tlaxcalans and Cholulans invaded Guatemala in the 1520s, the Sacapaulas region and other Ixil and Uspantek indigenous villages resisted the conquest for several years thanks to their location in the Cuchumatanes mountains and the ferocity of their warriors.

After several years of defeating the attempts of Spanish conquest, they were finally defeated in December 1530, and the surviving warriors were marked as slaves in punishment for their prolonged resistance. The lands and inhabitants were divided into large spaces called encomiendas and distributed among the first colonizers. After the Independence of Central America in 1821, during the liberal government of General Justo Rufino Barrios, the settlers were pressured to cut coffee on the farms of government officials and foreign settlers in very difficult conditions through the Regulation of Day Laborers decreed by Barrios. These farms were formed after the spoiling of indigenous communal lands in a violent or fraudulent manner.

The population of San Juan Cotzal suffered notably during the Civil War of Guatemala, especially with the counterinsurgency policy of the governments of Fernando Romeo Lucas García and Efraín Ríos Montt, which led to the concentration of the population in the so-called "model villages" », Such as Santa Avelina, San Felipe Chenlá and Ojo de Agua, where the inhabitants were under military control, resided forcibly in urban centers and had to participate in the Civil Self-Defense Patrols organized by the Guatemalan government.

04000, Depto De Chimaltenango
04001, Chimaltenango
04002, San Jose Poaquil
04003, San Martin Jilotepeque
15005, Granados

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Cotzal

https://www.quierochat.com/geo/3589913/chat-san-juan-cotzal/