El Estor
| El Estor | |
|---|---|
| Municipality of Guatemala | |
 El Estor
|
|
| Coordinates: 15°32′0″N 89°21′0″W / 15.53333°N 89.35000°W | |
| Country |
 Guatemala
|
| Department | Izabal Department |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2016-2020) | Rony Méndez (UNE) |
| Climate | Af |
El Estor is a municipality in the Izabal department of Guatemala. The population of El Estor consists largely of k'ekchi' speaking indigenous people.
Before roads and railroads, Lake Izabal was the link between Alta Verapaz and the rest of the world. What is now known as "El Estor" was the landing and trading post for cargo and travelers to frontier towns such as Cobán. Commonly referred to as "the store" in English by British merchants Skinner & Kleé, the name evolved most likely to its present form due to Spanish-speakers style of pronunciation and spelling.
El Estor was established as a settlement on 29 October 1886, given the remote location it was, relative to Livingston, Izabal; president Manuel Lisandro Barillas also appointed a commissioner and a Judge of Peace for the region, with a montly salary of 40 pesos. A few years later, it was elevated to municipality because the distance issue had not been resolved, on 5 November 1890.
On 20 January 1940, El Estor was annexed to Alta Verapaz Department by then president Jorge Ubico a change that was reverted once Ubico was deposed in 1944. An executive action by President Juan José Arévalo on 5 June 1945 incorporated El Estor to Izabal once again.
In the 1960s, the importance of the region known as Franja Transversal del Norte was in livestock, exploitation of precious export wood and archaeological wealth. Timber contracts we granted to multinational companies such as Murphy Pacific Corporation from California, which invested US$30 million for the colonization of southern Petén and Alta Verapaz, and formed the North Impulsadora Company. Colonization of the area was made through a process by which inhospitable areas of the Franja Transversal del Norte (FTN) were granted to native peasants.
In 1964, the National Institute for Agrarian Transformation (INTA) defined the geography of the FTN as the northern part of the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché , Alta Verapaz and Izabal and that same year priests of the Maryknoll order and the Order of the Sacred Heart began the first process of colonization, along with INTA, carrying settlers from Huehuetenango to the Ixcán sector in Quiché.
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