LatinNews Daily - 05 June 2024

*Queen Letizia of Spain has arrived in Guatemala for a three-day visit to boost cooperation ties. According to Guatemala’s state news agency Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (AGN), during her visit Queen Letizia, who is accompanied by Spain’s state secretary for international cooperation, Eva Granados Galiano, will focus on three key areas: the fight against child malnutrition; violence against women and children, with a special focus on the indigenous community; and youth, education, and work, particularly promoting professional training and the insertion of young people at risk of exclusion into the labour market. Spain’s international cooperation agency (AECID), which has been present in Guatemala since 1987, is currently carrying out 51 projects worth over €30.7m (US$33.4m). This is the latest sign of closer ties between Spain and Guatemala since the new left-of-centre government led by anti-corruption reformer President Bernardo Arévalo took office in January. In February Arévalo carried out a tour of Europe which, along with the US and other international partners, played a crucial role in ensuring that, in the face of efforts by Guatemala’s ‘pacto de corruptos’ network of institutional corruption to derail Arévalo’s remarkable win, the transition of power went ahead as planned.