How get attributes of maps from loop statement

[Larz60+]

This doesn't answer your question, but makes your code much more readable, and corrects
PEP8 inconsistencies.

You can save your dictionary as a json file with:

import json

landmask_regions= { \
        'Africa': ['mask_M01.map', 'mask_M02.map', 'mask_M03.map', \
            'mask_M05.map', 'mask_M06.map', 'mask_M07.map', 'mask_M08.map', \
            'mask_M09.map'], \
        'Asia': ['mask_M04.map', 'mask_M05.map', 'mask_M10.map', 'mask_M11.map', \
            'mask_M12.map', 'mask_M13.map', 'mask_M14.map', 'mask_M15.map', \
            'mask_M16.map', 'mask_M17.map', 'mask_M18.map', 'mask_M19.map', \
            'mask_M20.map', 'mask_M21.map', 'mask_M22.map', 'mask_M23.map'], \
        'Europe': ['mask_M26.map', 'mask_M28.map', 'mask_M32.map', 'mask_M33.map', \
            'mask_M34.map'], \
        'N-America': ['mask_M25.map', 'mask_M35.map', 'mask_M36.map', 'mask_M37.map', \
            'mask_M38.map', 'mask_M39.map', 'mask_M40.map', 'mask_M41.map', \
            'mask_M42.map', 'mask_M43.map', 'mask_M44.map', 'mask_M45.map', 'mask_M46.map'], \
        'Australia': ['mask_M47.map', 'mask_M48.map', 'mask_M49.map'], \
        'S-America': ['mask_M24.map', 'mask_M50.map', 'mask_M51.map', \
            'mask_M52.map', 'mask_M53.map']}

with open('landmarks.json', 'w') as jp:
    json.dump(landmask_regions, jp)

and modify your code like (cleaner):

import json


def main():
    with open('landmarks.json') as jp:
        landmask_regions = json.load(jp)

    choice = 'Europe'
    if choice == 'whole_world':
        maps = sum(landmask_regions.values(), [])
        print "processing world maps"
        for region in maps:
            print region
    elif choice in landmask_regions:
        maps = landmask_regions[choice]
        print "processing continent"
        for region in maps:
            print region
    elif choice.endswith('.map'):
        maps = [choice]
        print "processing river area"
        for region in maps:
            print region


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()