Two other bus accidents elsewhere in Latin America left 18 people dead, including at least 11 children.
Survivors of the Guatemala bus crash told rescuers that the driver had been going too fast and seemed intoxicated.
The bus fell from a more than 100-meter high cliff in the early morning hours near the border with Mexico in the Huehuetenango area, about 226 kilometers from Guatemala City.
At least six children were among the dead.
The rescue spokesman said that the bus was traveling north from Huehuetenango when the mishap occurred.
In Argentina, at least 12 people, including 10 teenagers, were killed and 40 injured when a truck slammed into a bus filled with children on a school trip in the north of the country.
Another six people, including a one-year-old baby, died and four were injured when a Soviet-era truck in which they were riding crashed down a slope in eastern Cuba.