History

Presidential elections go to second round. Former military leader Efrain Rios Montt, trailing in third place, accepts defeat.

Guatemala and Belize agree on draft settlement to their long-standing border dispute at talks brokered by Organization of American States (OAS). Both nations will hold referendums on draft settlement.

President Portillo pays $1.8m in compensation to the families of 226 men, women and children killed by soldiers and paramilitaries in the northern village of Las Dos Erres in 1982.

Alfonso Portillo sworn in as president after winning elections in 1999.

UN-backed commission says security forces were behind 93% of all human rights atrocities committed during the civil war, which claimed 200,000 lives, and that senior officials had overseen 626 massacres in Maya villages.

Bishop Juan Gerardi, a human rights campaigner, murdered.

Alvaro Arzu is elected president, conducts a purge of senior military officers and signs a peace agreement with rebels, ending 36 years of civil war.

Rebels declare a ceasefire; UN and US criticise Guatemala for widespread human rights abuses.

Peace talks between the government and rebels of the Guatemalan Revolutionary National Unity begin; right-wing parties win a majority in legislative elections.

Serrano forced to resign after his attempt to impose an authoritarian regime ignites a wave of protests; Ramiro de Leon Carpio elected president by the legislature.

Jorge Serrano Elias elected president. Diplomatic relations restored with Belize, from whom Guatemala had long-standing territorial claims.

Attempt to overthrow Cerezo fails; civil war toll since 1980 reaches 100,000 dead and 40,000 missing.

Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo elected president and the Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party wins legislative elections under a new constitution.

Montt ousted in coup led by General Mejia Victores, who declares an amnesty for guerrillas.

General Efrain Rios Montt takes power in a military coup. He conducts a campaign of mass murder against indigenous Mayans, accusing them of harbouring insurgents. He faces trial over these crimes in 2013.

Around 11,000 people are killed by death squads and soldiers in response to growing anti-government guerrilla activity.

Spanish embassy fire, a defining event in the civil war, in which 36 people die after police raid the embassy occupied by peasants.

27,000 people are killed and more than a million rendered homeless by earthquake.

Military rulers embark on a programme to eliminate left-wingers, resulting in at least 50,000 deaths.

Military-backed Carlos Arena elected president.

Civilian rule restored; Cesar Mendez elected president.

Colonel Enrique Peralta becomes president following the assassination of Castillo.

Civil war pitting government against leftist rebels supported mainly by indigenous people.

Land reform stops with the accession to power of Colonel Carlos Castillo in a coup backed by the US and prompted by Arbenz's nationalisation of plantations of the United Fruit Company.

Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman becomes president, continuing Arevalo's reforms.

Juan Jose Arevalo becomes president following the overthrow of Ubico and introduces social-democratic reforms, including setting up a social security system and redistributing land to landless peasants.

Guatemala declares war on the Axis powers

Jorge Ubico becomes president; his tenure is marked by repressive rule and then by an improvement in the country's finances.

Guatemala ruled by liberal President Justo Rufino Barrios, who modernises the country, develops the army and introduces coffee growing.

Guatemala ruled by conservative dictator Rafael Carrera.

Guatemala becomes fully independent.

Guatemala becomes part of the United Provinces of Central America, which also include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Guatemala becomes independent and joins the Mexican empire the following year.

Spanish adventurer Pedro de Alvarado defeats the indigenous Maya and turns Guatemala into a Spanish colony.