Juan David Latorre
The embassies of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua celebrated yesterday the 201st anniversary of their independence, proclaimed on 15 September 1821, in front of the Diplomatic Corps attending the event, which took place at the Galileo Cultural Centre.
The event was hosted by the Ambassadors of Guatemala and El Salvador, Mónica Bolaños and Mauricio Peñate, respectively, and the Chargé d’Affaires of Honduras and Nicaragua, Carolina Valeiro and Milagros Urbina.
Cecilio Cerdán, Director General for Cooperation and Global Citizenship of the Madrid City Council, took the floor. Our capital is a global city,” said the Director General, “and for many years it has had a policy of taking special care of our embassies, there are almost 120 of them. But today is a special date, because there are four sister nations celebrating today, with Madrid, if I may say so, being a small Central American city with more than 40,000 natives of their nations who decided to live in our city and are Madrileños, and who are joined by their descendants and successive generations who strengthen our ties”.
The Director General pointed out that “the City Council’s Global Citizenship programme, which is being developed in Madrid’s 21 districts, is inspired by peace, unity and democracy, an inspiration not unlike that which led to the creation of the Federal Republic of Central America, which will be 200 years old in a few months’ time.”
To conclude, he emphasised that: “above all, I would like to highlight the value of the communities of the Central American countries that reside in Madrid. Active, supportive and enterprising, they are an example from which we learn every day and, above all, they are and will be ambassadors of this city wherever they reside or develop professionally in the future, whether in their countries of origin, in Spain or wherever in the world they go”.
The Salvadoran ambassador, Mauricio Peñate, spoke on behalf of the four host embassies. “Our peoples and governments, he noted, have come much closer together to establish agreements and commitments that have set us on the path to a healthy and fruitful relationship, which is manifested in the celebration of important official visits by authorities from our countries, as well as in the realisation of important commitments that are decided on the basis of regulatory mechanisms of political consultations.”
“At the economic, trade and investment level, our governments continue to strengthen the Association Agreement between the European Union and Latin America, especially in reducing tariffs and increasing the efficiency of customs procedures that promote the strengthening of business contacts, an opportunity for investment, with a market of 49 million inhabitants and a GDP of 265 million dollars. This makes us the seventh largest economy in the region, after Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile”.
Mauricio Peñate highlighted in the commercial and economic aspect with the Kingdom of Spain, “the importance of progress in the design and negotiation of the so-called Circular Migration Programmes, where brotherly countries such as Honduras have made exemplary progress and where excellent opportunities for our working population in different strategic sectors in Spain are in sight”. El Salvador is already preparing a similar programme with Spain, as well as an air transport agreement, which “will facilitate contact and trade”.
“Our four countries,” concluded the Salvadoran ambassador, “have a more privileged relationship as partners for development with the Kingdom of Spain, being remarkable the renewal of important commitments in development cooperation, through the Country Partnership Frameworks (MAP), which are positioned as the main instruments of Spanish bilateral cooperation in the world.”
Representing the Government of Spain was the Secretary of State for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo. The ambassadors of Bolivia, Haití, Morocco, the United States, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Argentina, Chile and Malta were also present.
