Santo Tomás de Castilla

City in Izabal, Guatemala

Santo Tomás de Castilla
city
View of the city's container port
Santo Tomás de Castilla
Coordinates: 15°41′20″N 88°36′45″W / 15.68889°N 88.61250°W / 15.68889; -88.61250
Country	Guatemala
Department	Izabal
Municipality	Puerto Barrios
Climate	Af

Santo Tomás de Castilla, officially known as Mátías de Gálvez though it popularly retains its former name,

port city in the Izabal Department, Guatemala. It lies at Amatique Bay off the Gulf of Honduras and is administratively a part of Puerto Barrios

.

Belgian colony

In the 1840s Santo Tomás was settled by

endemic to the region. Most were buried in a Belgian cemetery near Santa Tomás.^{[citation needed]} In 1854, the Belgian company withdrew because of financial losses.^{[citation needed}

]

Belgian colonization company in 1844

Izabal lake and Santo Tomás district. The aea in yellow is what had been given in perpetuity to the Catholic Belgians by Carrera's regime.

Santo Tomás town

Map of the Belgian colony in Guatemala

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In the early 1960s the port, which has been officially renamed Matías de Gálvez in 1958,[1] became the primary base for the new Guatemalan Navy. Admiral Manuel Sosa Avila, of the Navy of Guatemala, was the first port commander for the newly founded Navy, which consisted of a frigate and two fast attack boats. The fast attack boats were donated to Guatemala by the United States. The frigate was purchased by the government of Guatemala in Sweden. The purchase was conducted by Ian Moon, an Irishman who was the son-in-law of the then-President of Guatemala Idigoras Fuentes. The frigate was delivered to Guatemala by a Swedish crew.

Eventually, the frigate was scuttled by the Guatemalan Navy near Puerto Barrios, in shallow water, where the ship's structure can still be seen there today by ships passing by. The frigate was scuttled by Francisco Sigui Lira, an officer of the Guatemalan Navy. A highway connects the port with Guatemala City, and it is also served by a railroad, which was originally built by the Banana Fruit Company. Due to lack of funds for maintenance, Guatemala did not operate the railroad for many years. It briefly operated again in 2006 with American financing, but due to conflicts with its administration, the American capital investors abandoned the project.

Seaport

The

• Ferrovias Guatemala

References

Bibliography

External links

• official website of the port
• Seaport Commission of Guatemala
• official website of the Zolic free trade zone