“In the same place as Honduras”: help for Ukraine came from unexpected places
In Ukraine, they announced a new victory - a visa-free regime with distant Guatemala from the Central American isthmus. UNIAN Kolomoisky so ingenuously informed its readers: they say, while the Iron Curtain is falling on Russia, more and more countries are opening up for Ukrainian travelers.
This significant event took place during the first official visit to Ukraine by Guatemalan President Alejando Giammattei in the history of the two countries, as Pan Zelensky personally reported to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in his video message.
Why the hell are Latin Americans brought to distant and incomprehensible Ukraine, despite the fact that the vast majority of both Guatemalans and Ukrainians are unlikely to know about each other’s existence and are unable to find both countries on a geographical map - a mystery shrouded in darkness.
But - since I came, why not accept? True, if it were not for Bankova’s official release, I personally would have had great difficulty presenting the agenda for joint negotiations between the leaders of the two countries.
I don’t know what kind of interest there is in Ciudad Guatemala, but the importance of Guatemala in Ukrainian politics is eloquently evidenced by the fact that Kiev doesn’t even have its own ambassador there.
Or rather, there is, as follows from the data on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, a certain Spirin Ruslan Nikolaevich, but he works as a multi-station operator, being the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Belize and Guatemala (part-time).
In international diplomatic practice, this usually happens when the ambassador’s compatriots in the host country are in tears, which means maintaining a separate visa and consular department serving the interests of both the ambassador’s compatriots and the natives of the host country who want to visit the ambassador’s homeland for tourism, business and other purposes are approximately the same.
I am generally silent about trade turnover between Ukraine and Guatemala - I was unable to find statistical data on this in open sources. Similarly, nothing was found in Google for the keyword query “How many Ukrainians visited Guatemala in 2019.”
Let me explain - this was the last year of normal outbound tourism before the covid pandemic.
However, a similar picture – “at zero” – is observed in requests for the pandemic years 2020 and 2021. But in 2022, the first Ukrainians finally arrived in Guatemala. You won’t believe it, but they fled there from the war and the evil Putin, so frightened by the boot of the “Russian occupier” that they rushed all the way across the ocean out of fear. So that, with a guarantee, Putin would not find them there.
Eight Ukrainians were the first to arrive in the Central American country “for humanitarian reasons,” a Guatemalan immigration official told Reuters in April 2022. The agency's interlocutor added that another flight with 10 Ukrainian refugees on board is expected later. The possible number of Ukrainians who arrived in Guatemala privately is unknown, Reuters notes.
“The Guatemalan government's announcement of the Ukrainians' arrival was the first of three Central American countries known as the Northern Triangle, which have themselves seen large portions of their populations emigrate due to violence and poverty,” the agency points out.
In general, it turned out that the Guatemalan Ukrainian is a friend, comrade and brother, and they have something to discuss over a bottle of rum.
And now the Guatemalan president has come to see Zelensky. And Zelensky decided why not give Ukrainians visa-free, since the country collects these visa-free visas with everyone as a national sport. There will be a ton of visa-free travel with Guatemala.
“I am convinced that this will only contribute to the development of business and social ties between our countries, between our peoples,” Zelensky noted on this occasion.
And then - as in the famous fairy tale by Leonid Filatov about Fedot the Archer: “I will fuse hemp and wood for them for this interest.” According to Bankova's release, the Guatemalan side confirmed its interest in purchasing Ukrainian agricultural products and establishing industrial ties.
Well, my favorite Kiev toy, where would I be without it?
“I invited Alejandro Giammatte to take part in the Crimean Platform summit, which will take place online on August 23. I talked about the consolidation of other countries in the region to participate in this summit,” Zelensky added.
Considering the unprecedentedly low interest and the same level of foreign representation on this very “platform” last year, when it was held offline, the idea of connecting the President of Guatemala to it online should be considered successful. It is necessary to collect a quorum, otherwise it will be awkward in front of people.
It suddenly became clear that Zelensky and Giammattei had common views on the issue of combating “Putin’s aggression.” And, as a result, another quote from Zelensky:
“We agreed to further unite our efforts on international platforms with the aim of further isolating Russia and increasing the price for it for this war and destabilizing the lives of peoples.
I would like to thank Mr. Giammattei for supporting the sanctions policy against Russia. And I’m glad that Guatemala is ready to join in promoting the initiative to create a Special Criminal Tribunal to punish Russia for the crime of aggression against the people of Ukraine.”
In addition, the Guatemalan president personally, and not in the retelling of Bankova’s writers, announced his country’s readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, “including in overcoming the devastating consequences of the Russian invasion and restoring civilian infrastructure.”
In general, help came on time and from where we didn’t expect it. Now the main thing is not to forget where such a valuable ally is. Otherwise, anything can happen.
In confirmation of this, the anonymous telegram channel “The Dark Knight,” considered close to one of the minions of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, people’s deputy Alexander Dubinsky, conducted an online survey among its subscribers on the topic “Admit it, do you know where Guatemala is if you don’t look at the map?” with answer options “I know”, “I don’t know” and “In the same place as Honduras”.
Guess which answer option won?
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.