Eduardo González
Queen Letizia will make her ninth cooperation trip next June 4 to 6, in this case to Guatemala, as reported yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the trip, as indicated by the Ministry in a press release, Doña Letizia will be able to learn about the work that Spanish Cooperation carries out in Guatemala through projects to support children, youth and gender with special impact on indigenous peoples. The Queen will be accompanied on the cooperation trip by the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Eva Granados Galiano.
This is the ninth Cooperation trip made by the Queen, who has recovered a custom started by Queen Sofia in 1997. Previously, Doña Letizia traveled to Honduras and El Salvador (2015), Senegal (2017), the Dominican Republic and Haiti (2018), Mozambique (2019), Honduras again (2020), Paraguay (end of 2021), Mauritania (May 2022) and Colombia (June 2023).
The objective of these visits is to support Spanish Cooperation, learn first-hand about the work carried out by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and Spanish NGOs and check the effectiveness of the projects financed by Spain and their impact. directly to the beneficiaries.
King Felipe VI visited Guatemala last January to attend the inauguration of President Bernardo Arévalo de León. On that occasion, the Monarch conveyed to the Guatemalan president Spain’s commitment to maintaining and strengthening its cooperation with the Central American country. In addition, Arévalo officially visited Spain in February. During this visit, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of Guatemala signed a Joint Declaration in Madrid in which they expressed their interest “in continuing to strengthen ties of cooperation by holding a meeting of the Joint Technical Cooperation Commission between both countries to adopt a new Spain-Guatemala Country Association Framework (MAP) for the period 2025-2028.”
Spanish Cooperation in Guatemala
The current Master Plan of Spanish Cooperation considers Guatemala as a Middle Income Association Country. Between 2018 and 2021, Spain contributed more than 105.6 million euros to the Central American country, of which more than 23.7 million corresponded to the AECID. In addition, Spain’s Official Development Assistance to Guatemala in 2021 was almost 30.7 million euros.
The Spanish Cooperation, whose actions are still governed by the Country Association Framework (MAP) 2021-2024, focuses its efforts on the fight against chronic childhood malnutrition, promoting the right of women, girls and adolescents to a life free of violence and strengthening the rule of law and the realization of human rights. In addition, Spanish Cooperation continues to carry out interventions in the field of Culture and Development and also supports the country by sending humanitarian aid in emergency situations, such as storms Eta and Iota (precisely, the objective of the Queen’s trip to Honduras in December 2020 was to know first-hand the situation in the country after the passage of the two hurricanes) or the eruption of the Fuego volcano, in June 2018. Support has also been provided to migrants and displaced people in the various migration crises it suffers. the country.
The AECID is present in Guatemala through three entities: since 1987, the Spanish Cooperation Office (OCE) has been operating in the country, located in Guatemala City and which participates in the identification and monitoring of most of the funded projects. by AECID. Additionally, in La Antigua there is the headquarters of the Spanish Cooperation Training Center, one of the three existing in Latin America, and in zone 1 of Guatemala City the Cultural Center of Spain is based, in operation since 2004. formally integrated into the AECID since 2023, as part of the Agency’s Network of Cultural Centers Abroad.
On the other hand, more than 65 Spanish NGDOs operate with Guatemala, 43 of which are based in the country. Since 2013, many of them have been grouped together on the platform of the Coordinator of Spanish NGDOs in Guatemala (CODEG). These NGDOs are financed with their own and private funds, but also with public funds from AECID, regional, municipal and provincial governments, and funds from the European Union.
