Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"In the late 1830s, Rafael Carrera, a conservative caudillo, overthrew Morazán and dominated Central America for the next quarter century. . . . A rural mestizo with close ties to Guatemala’s indigenous peoples, Carrera protected their welfare—their village lands, above all—as few other national leaders in Latin American history. Like Rosas, Carrera shielded the Catholic Church from liberal assaults, and he honored the local folk culture that made Eurocentric liberals shudder." [Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 4th Ed., p. 137] This heart of the ancient Maya Empire, which remains strongly permeated by indigenous culture and traditions, has only a small window on the Caribbean but a longer Pacific coastline. . . . Guatemala has seen a great deal of conflict, and military regimes have dominated political life. There is a deepening split between the wretchedly poor indigenous populations and the better-off mestizos who continue to control the government, military, and land-tenure system. . . . Progress has been thwarted by out-of-control drug trafficking and violent crime." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 92-3]