The Diplomat
His Majesty the King plans to travel to Latin America next week to celebrate the 5th Centenary of the founding of San Juan de Puerto Rico and to attend the inauguration of the new President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro.
Don Felipe, who today offers the traditional reception at the Royal Palace to the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Madrid, will begin on Monday, the 24th, his first trip abroad in 2022, and will do so to be present at the events with which Puerto Rico wants to commemorate the founding of its capital, San Juan, by the Spaniards.
The first settlers from Spain arrived on the Puerto Rican island in 1493, but it was in 1521 that the first governor, Juan Ponce de León, moved the capital from the original settlement at Caparra to what is now known as Old San Juan.
The 500th anniversary of that event was in 2021, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the island and city authorities decided to extend the celebrations through 2022 and invited the Spanish monarch to participate.
Felipe VI plans to stay in San Juan de Puerto Rico from the 24th to the 26th, developing a varied programme of activities, including meetings with the governor of the island, Pedro Pierluisi, and with the mayor of the capital, Miguel Romero. He will also visit several cultural institutions and attend an economic forum in which Spanish and Puerto Rican companies will participate.
This is not the first time that the sovereign has visited San Juan de Puerto Rico in this capacity. The last time he did so, accompanied by Queen Letizia, was in 2016 to inaugurate the VII International Congress of the Spanish Language.
After his stay in Puerto Rico, the King will travel to Tegucigalpa to attend the inauguration of the new President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, which will take place on Thursday 27th.
Don Felipe is thus resuming his attendance at the inauguration of Ibero-American presidents, after he was not present at the inauguration of Daniel Ortega as President of Nicaragua on 11 November, due to the Spanish government’s decision not to send a representative to the event in protest at the way in which the elections were held in November in the Central American country.
The inauguration of Xiomara Castro, the first woman to take office in Honduras and wife of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in 2009, will bring together in Tegucigalpa a large number of Latin American leaders and former left-wing leaders, as well as the Vice-President of the United States, Kamala Harris.
