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Guatemala City (AFP) – The President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, continues her visit to Guatemala this Saturday, April 1, where she ratified with her Guatemalan counterpart, Alejandro Giammattei, a strategic alliance against China’s diplomatic offensive in the region.
Tsai’s journey, which will also take her to Belize, takes place days after Honduras broke diplomatic relations with Taipei to choose to link only with Beijing and it will be announced that Honduran President Xiomara Castro will soon visit China.
In a meeting with Giammattei, Tsai thanked the Guatemalan late Friday for his support when China conducted military exercises around the island in the northwestern Pacific Ocean last year.
He also highlighted cooperation with Guatemala, one of the few diplomatic allies that the island has in the world. Along with Belize, they are among the seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that remain on the list of 13 nations in the world that continue to officially recognize Taipei against Beijing.
“Guatemala is a solid diplomatic ally of Taiwan,” said Tsai when giving a joint message to the press with Giammattei.
diplomatic conflict
The host president said that for Guatemala Tsai’s visit “is very significant to renew and reaffirm full support for the Taiwanese government.”
Giammattei also reiterated “the recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation and as the only true China.”
Latin America has been a diplomatic battleground since Taiwan and China parted ways in 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war.
The communists seized power in mainland China, while the nationalists retreated to Taiwan.
A week ago, Honduras broke ties with Taiwan and recognized China as the only current nation with which it would have diplomatic relations, thus following the breakup steps of Nicaragua (2021), El Salvador (2018), Panama (2017) and Costa Rica ( 2007).
hectic visit
Tsai had scheduled a visit to the ruins of Tikal this Saturday, one of the most important of the Mayan civilization in Guatemala, located in the north of the country, in the Petén region, on the border with Mexico and Belize.
The president will travel by plane to the northern city of Flores, according to her schedule, to tour that emblematic archaeological site declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.
In some sections of her visit she will be accompanied by Giammattei, who has suffered from multiple sclerosis since he was young, for which reason he uses walkers to get around.
More than 42% of the inhabitants of Guatemala have Mayan ancestors, a culture that had its greatest splendor between 250-900 AD, and covered a large Mesoamerican area that includes southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize.
On Sunday, Tsai will visit the new hospital in the western Guatemalan city of Chimaltenango, built with a $22 million donation from Taipei.
That hospital began operating on February 10, but its opening was overshadowed shortly after with the arrest of a Vice Minister of Health and two hospital executives, for alleged acts of corruption when making anomalous purchases for almost 10 million dollars.
Belize, next stop
Tsai will leave Sunday for Belize, where he will meet the next day with the first mi
On his return trip he plans to meet in the state of California with the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, an announcement that prompted China to warn the United States that it is “playing with fire.”
Washington said there is no reason for China to “overreact.”
Taiwan has lost several Latin American allies in recent years.
Paraguay could be next, as it has presidential elections in April and opposition candidate Efraín Alegre has said that if he wins, he will assess whether to maintain ties with Taiwan.
China regards the democratically and self-ruled island as a rogue province that is an integral part of its territory, which it hopes to one day recapture, even without ruling out force.
Under the “One China” principle, it does not allow any country to have diplomatic ties with Beijing and Taipei at the same time. However, the United States does not have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it does have a strong unofficial relationship, according to the State Department.
Washington is the island’s main ally and its biggest arms supplier, although it switched recognition to Beijing in 1979.
