Concerning Belize, what is the potential changes that can happen within Belize and how will Guatemala ultimately benefit from this?
First of all, Belize means resorting. Once the territorial claim has been clarified or settled on a definite solution, we believe that both parties will be able to devote their efforts just to work on a constructive relation because the certainty will allow each country to know exactly where the borders begin and where the borders finalize. Otherwise, the problem is that even though both countries may be the most willing countries to enter into a constructive relationship, as it has happened in the recent past, there will still be some small loopholes. We may reach an extra amount of friendship but still the problems will arise sooner or later. These sometimes may have an impact that will make us go backwards for X or Y amount of time until relations again are good and that we have become as boyfriends and shake hands again. So as the final solution we would be able to share with Belize many aspects that both parties may benefit from their own. Belize by itself is not a secret by it's nature and by it's geography. It is conditioned to depend heavily upon Guatemala. One will appreciate that Belize and Guatemala do conform a unique economic space. Now, we have entered into an agreement with El Salvador to build a free sound trade and also a customs unification for which also Honduras has applied to become a member. This of course, make us to return to the old Spanish concept of the northern triangle of Central America which has its own logic in terms of nature, geography and conformation of history. So we could make, and it would be necessary, for Belize to become part of this huge market. Also because they can benefit from Guatemala's infrastructure. For example, Belize would benefit from all of Guatemala's ports in the Pacific. It has and needs some more facilities which would allow it to preserve it's natural resource of tourism which are the beautiful but fragile waters of the Caribbean. Belize can use our Atlantic ports with much more advantage than using Hondurans ports in terms of cost. It's very elementary, because Honduras ports are located far away from Guatemala's ports, once they have reached Hondorus ports they need to retransfer the goods into some low vessels or to be taken into Belize which increases the cost. Whereas if they ship them to Guatemala, they can use a highway. We are also working together with Honduras to try to recuperate an old highway which has been abandoned for many years . It's approximately 3 miles or so. There is a bridge and this highway will unify Honduras ports and Guatemala's ports and it will be a very short, small piece of highway that will need to be built from there to Belize. As complex highway system it will unify the whole Bay of Amatique and the whole Gulf of Honduras. We are very confident that by building this process with Belize, we will both be able to benefit ourselves. Guatemala is conscious that this may be just one aspect of the issue but it is not the whole. We want this to be resolved basically because it is the key for having peace with Belize and peace means a solid ground for economic development.
Central America, if I am not mistaken has approximately a potential 35 million people.
Yes, roughly speaking, but most of the multinational companies speak about the market of no less than 20 million individuals. Of course it competes with your statistics because there are populations, which are not counted or are located in certain areas which cannot be considered as consumers. But as terms of population it is fair to work with that amount.
From the point of view of the Caribbean initiative and the common market in Central America, what potential do you see as working together with these countries? What does it mean for the future of the economies and what does it constitute as far as looking for investment from either North America, South America or the European Union.?
First of all, our experience has shown that we need to present ourselves and work out ourselves as a region as a whole. Why; to be very practical. We have reached at certain phases, huge potential clients, huge countries that may require X amount of hundreds or thousands of kilos of sugar. But what Guatemala produces by them, may not be able to cover the amount of such need. So we would need in that case, to unify the remaining sugar producers of Central America to be able to serve or to provide the quantity required by our potential client. These kinds of projects that we are beginning to face right now has compelled us to be much more efficient and has shown that our economic integration in Central America is not only a job favored for government but it is also a job that serves society, industrialists or the private sector. What we have been trying to do in the case of Guatemala, in particular in my case in the ministry of Foreign Affairs is to become or try to become an efficient facilitator with the private sector in sticking new markets. We try to explore by ourselves in any kind of forum that may produce some information to needs promoted countries or establishing friends to see what they may need that we can produce. But also we have tried to provide the private sector with the necessary support when they have specifically or priory identified some countries or some sectors that they can already serve. In that case, we try to work and provide them the outmost facilities so that they can do their job efficiently. I believe that together we have been able to establish certain programs, a kind of commercial attaché that have been trained by the private sector and some other institutions for which they know specifically what their needs are. But of course this implies a great amount of money to be invested. So we use these programs in certain cases to be the "keeper" for already established markets and in some instances, depending on the prospective of the market we send them a scout. We also have another level of scouts, which are our main emphasis, and we the personnel of the Ministry of International Affairs are the one's who are looking for other possibilities in the market.
Could you outline the three most important roles that you will be taking on within the next two years as the minister.
We have a very critical job which concerns the assistance to Guatemala's population abroad, what we call an immigration problem. Guatemala has turned to become the frontier for the NAFTA committee. In other words, Mexico belongs to NAFTA so therefore NAFTA's southern border is Guatemala. So we have become sort of a concentration point or clearing for most of the migrants trying to get into the United States. We also have a significant amount of the population who are trying to move to the United States but also a significant amount of immigration which is not definite. They just go to Mexico, work there for harvest time and thereafter they come back to Guatemala. So we need to deal and manage with all these kinds of migrations, sometimes ours, sometimes incoming or passing by Guatemala. We have been awaiting for the results of the census of the United States for getting a deeper study of the profile of these movements. We need to locate the biggest amounts of Guatemala's population in the States, it's features, etc. We have already done some research by our own and we have had the cooperation from the International Immigration Organization. But still we need some more detailed studies in order to know exactly how to allocate our resources. Just to illustrate, we note so far, and this is something that we have learned from the recent studies, that Guatemalan population located in the areas of Newark, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut are people who have been living there for more than fifteen years.
Does this cause any image problems as far as representation of the region especially with Guatemala within the United States?
Yes because there have been certain problems that
they have created a start of a vicious circle. In
some instances, Guatemalan migrants have claimed
that Guatemala's political situation is very bad
for them to return. Sometimes this might be inaccurate
but legally speaking it might be the only tool for
them to remain in the United States. So, you may
infer from that problem or from this aspect that
sometimes the press in the United States still conveys
the idea that Guatemala is sort of a problem source
for people and people need to migrate to the United
States. Of course we won't deny that most of these
people going to the United States are seeking a
much better economic life. But still the legal look
for them to grab an opportunity is saying that this
country isn't secure, that there are political refugees
instead of being economic dependent etc. This is
a problem of public image that sometimes has affected
not only Guatemala but some other countries in Central
America. We have dealt with it and it is difficult
in some instances to make people realize that things
have changed. Perhaps not a 180 degree turn but
conditions have improved. Just to illustrate my
point, one week ago I was in New York and I had
the opportunity to conduct interviews with members
of the Guatemalan community. People there have a
much more accurate view of what is going on in the
Guatemalan political front. But if you go down to
the Gulf in the US geography, people still believe
that political conditions in Guatemala are the same
as ten years ago. Sometimes because they don't want
to know anything else or sometimes I believe it's
because they just want to keep there minds on the
tool which is necessary for them to repeat this
process. We are working together with some other
Central American countries which takes us to your
first question, even to our defense needs we still
need to work as a region. |
We feel that the region integration process is essential to the international community to become aware of the exact facts and what the realities are and not focusing on the two or three issues which create a mountain of negative press for the countries involved.
You asked me a question about my three roles, the second one is that Guatemala needs to project an improved image of itself. We must remember that Guatemala has undergone a civil war for almost thirty years and that all sectors had their own international and political agenda. But let's say the groups of hosting the government at that time, had a very efficient international program to convey the image of Guatemala which of course was negative. So, we still have to go climbing the hill trying to promote the idea that after signing the peace Guatemala has become a little in harmony. Of coarse we won't deny that we have some problems. The economy needs to grow and security needs to be improved etc. But it would also be fair to say that the situation is not the same as it was ten or eight years ago. Things have improved and the political process has become much more open much clearer. Political parties have been maturing. I would say that we have a positive sign in the whole context. Still we need to show the world that Guatemala is a country that has a good standing in the international community. It is a country that can contribute positively to develop certain institutions or international organizations can contribute on its thinking on its ideas to developing a better international system and that would be considered perhaps another important point in our job. Finally, I would say that something very important for us is to strengthen our diplomatic capacity. Guatemala, because of the war suffered so much in its diplomatic form in its ministry that the system, fortunately did not collapse but became very weak. Right now we are daring to enhance our diplomatic action in every level. We are reorganizing the diplomatic school or the diplomatic academy. Also we are trying to reorganize thinking tanks or international politics which we are practically faded. During this time many people went to exile, many people decided not to get involved anymore in politics. So again we need to recuperate these human resources of thinkers, critics that will try to work on international relations but not only to act but to also start planning ahead for the future. This would be my personal achievement.
How are your relationships right now with the international community? How are you communicating with the United States and how are you achieving your goals with the European Union?
We believe that we have been a able to develop very good communication with the United States, European Union and the Soviet federation. We also have good relations with Asia; Japan, China and Korea. We are trying, within the limits of our budget to establish next year three or four new embassies to start working with African countries.
Anywhere in particular?
We are looking forward to make a more efficient northern part of Africa. We look at South Africa as a potential friend and partner to develop a network of embassies that would cover the southern equatorial part of Africa. We have also been looking at places such as Thailand and Singapore. Another one which needs to be worked a little more. Some of them are very good sugar consumers. This may take a little more time than the openings of the embassies. We want to be very open to the world and take advantage of the friends of the market.
Do you have a PROQUAT agency at every embassy or potentially to help finding investment working within the embassies themselves worldwide?
No, we have certain embassies that have this particular program where whenever we believe that it might be necessary or advisable to have their assistance, we work a preliminary study. Both work together because we are very conscious of the need to rationalize our investment. So we try to optimize everything that we can
From an infrastructure point of view, tourism traditionally is seen as the backbone of many economies. From our own research we are aware that one of the big focuses will be tourism once more. Moving away from Agriculture, which means diversification. What can you tell us about how the image of tourism in this country will be changed from a security perspective and for the development of Eco-tourism and potential business tourism?
You may recall that Guatemala favors the job of increasing tourism to the National Institute of Tourism. Guatemala is particularly interested in building an infrastructure and taking advantage of the kind of tourism on the cultural aspect. For example, Eco-tourism, which is a good sector. The studies have shown that Guatemala can profit much more on the Mayan routes than some other cultural tourism. According to this study, tourism might become much more affluent than any other kind of tourism. I want to be clear that we do not reject any other type of tourism but we want to take the outmost advantage of our won potential. We also are beginning again to think of some aspects in regards to our policies concerning airlines. For example, open skies some cases in which we would need to renegotiate with our neighbors some terms and conditions in order to provide mutual benefits for the use of airport facilities as well as licenses or aerial routes. So we are very conscious that needs to be done and hopefully next year we will start working on these particular issues very aggressively in order to start growing with the chronological year.
Are there any other potential privatization processes scheduled to take place?
At this time I would say that we are conscious that certain areas need to be privatized but what we are working on is on a clear leader rule for privatization. The problem we are facing now is that original privatization were undertaken in very weak legal structures and therefore the problem is not to be against privatization. What we are doing is working privatization the clearer and the most legal in order to secure that the interest not only of the country. Our main concern is also to secure the consumers and the users some protections that they do not have at this time in the already saturated privatized process.
I'd like to know about how do you think the image at presence is the hand over to this present government has been perceived internationally. What kind of image do you think Guatemala has?
Well I would say that first of all we inherited from the prior administration a beast. However the beast itself didn't meant anything unless you were able to start creating the commissions for people to really enjoy a healthy economy and that is where we want to go. It might be important to mention that our goal has been to secure the bigger number of our population to take advantages of the economic growth and sometimes Guatemala was not used to this type of policy. So you may see the reactions of the press are not always very supportive of the government but we believe that this was something that needs to be done, it speaks within the spirit of the peace agreement and that sooner or later this was insisting that we are committed to do it and we want to do it and we are confident that it will be done.
What would be your final message to our readers?
Well I would say that my final message is that we are positive. We look to our future very positively, very affirmative that every political platform requires sometimes to resist to some opposition but that we have clear attributes. We know what needs to be done and we will do it. So I am confident and hopeful that we will succeed in our goal.
How has the hand over to this present government been perceived Internationally? What kind of image do you think Guatemala has?
Well I would say that first of all we inherited from the prior administration a beast. However the beast itself didn't meant anything unless you were able to start creating the commissions for people to really enjoy a healthy economy and that is where we want to go. It might be important to mention that our goal has been to secure the bigger number of our population to take advantages of the economic growth and sometimes Guatemala was not used to this type of policy. So you may see the reactions of the press are not always very supportive of the government but we believe that this was something that needs to be done, it speaks within the spirit of the peace agreement and that sooner or later this was insisting that we are committed to do it and we want to do it and we are confident that it will be done.
What would be your final message to our readers?
(laughs ) Well I would say that my final message is that we are positive. We look to our future very positive, very affirmative that every political platform has a requires a sometimes to resist some opposition but that we have clear attributes. We know what needs to be done and we will do it. So I am confident and hopefully that we will succeed in our goal ( or government?) |
