Guatemala

Guatemala is widely known for the traces of the Mayan culture that can still be found. In the post War period, the republic saw its far share of internal turmoil. The government and United Fruit went head to head for some years and the United States backed a military coup because the government was alleged to be infiltrated by communists and the interests of US companies - like United Fruit -needed to be protected (or so it seemed). Shortly after the take over, in June 1954, a law suite was filed against United Fruit and its influence was broken. The military rule lasted for three decades and this period saw guerrilla activities, suppression of left-wing sympathisers, war-atrocities and withdrawal of US support for a period of time. The civil war finally ended in 1984 and elections were held in 1985. Dialogue was started with the guerrillas. The early nineties went by against a backdrop of civil unrest and failing government policies. Finally, on 29 December 1996 a peace treaty was signed. In the 2000s, the political scene appeared relatively quiet for Guatemalan standars.

Permission was granted to form the Escuela Militar de Mecánicos de Aviación on 12 March 1921. This unit evolved into the branch that is called the Fuerza Aérea de Guatemala (FAG) today. On 30 June 1929, the Cuerpo de Aviación Militar de Guatemala was formed, which was renamed Cuerpo de Aeronáutica Militar in 1936. The FAG is a relatively small air force. It has relied mostly on US aircraft types during its history. The F-51 Mustang, C-47 Dakota, T-33 and Huey are typical examples of this. Some of these aircraft still serve the FAG today, the C-47 Dakota for example, albeit in the Turboprop variant. The FAG has no jet aircraft, and PC-7s and T-35s are used for training. A single Arava carries out transport augmenting the Dakotas mentioned before. A few modernization programme have been started in the 2000s although this has so far not led to delivery of new armed aircraft. With a number of Cessna 208s and a DHC-6-400 Twin Otter, mainly light transport aircraft have been acquired the last few years.