Guatemala–United States relations

US President Trump watches as Guatemalan Minister of Interior and Home Affairs Enrique Antonio Degenhart Asturias (left) and US Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan (right) sign an agreement on Cooperation Regarding the Examination of Protection Claims in 2019

The U.S. State Department lists policy objectives in Guatemala that include:

• Supporting the institutionalization of democracy and implementation of the peace accords;
• Encouraging respect for human rights and the rule of law, and implementation of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG);
• Supporting broad-based economic growth and sustainable development and maintaining mutually beneficial trade and commercial relations, including ensuring that benefits of CAFTA-DR reach all sectors of the Guatemalan populace;
• Cooperating to combat money laundering, corruption, narcotics trafficking, alien-smuggling, and other transnational crime; and
• Supporting Central American integration through support for resolution of border/territorial disputes.[1]

On July 15, 2019, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales cancelled a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump after the Guatemala Supreme Court issued an injunction against a proposed deal concerning the Trump Administration's policy objective of limiting the number of Guatemalan migrants entering the United States of America.[5][6][7] Morales had been expected to sign the deal, which also sought to use Guatemala as a place where crossing Central American migrants had to apply for asylum before entering the U.S.,[5] under pressure from the U.S. government.[8][6]

The US State Department says that the United States, as a member of "the Friends of Guatemala," along with Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Norway, and Venezuela, played an important role in the UN-moderated peace accords, providing public and behind-the-scenes support. The U.S. strongly supports the six substantive and three procedural accords, which, along with the signing of the December 29, 1996 final accord, form the blueprint for profound political, economic, and social change. To that end, the U.S. Government has committed over $500 million to support peace implementation since 1997.[1]

The US State Department notes that violent criminal activity continues to be a problem in Guatemala, including murder, rape, disappearances, and armed assaults against persons of all nationalities. In recent years the number of violent crimes reported by U.S. citizens has steadily increased, though the number of Americans traveling to Guatemala has also increased.[1] Under the administration of US President Donald Trump, the US government has also expressed about granting asylum to migrants from Guatemala and other Central American countries and has made efforts to use Guatemala to curb the number of US migrants from Central America.[8][5]

The US State Department says most U.S. assistance to Guatemala is provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) offices for Guatemala. USAID/Guatemala's current program builds on the gains of the peace process that followed the signing of the peace accords in December 1996, as well as on the achievements of its 1997–2004 peace program. The current program works to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives by focusing on Guatemala's potential as Central America's largest economy and trading partner of the United States, but also recognizes the country's lagging social indicators and high rate of poverty. The three areas of focus for USAID/Guatemala's program are modeled after the Millennium Challenge Account areas—ruling justly, economic freedom, and investing in people.[1]

Principal U.S. Embassy officials include:[1]

• Ambassador--Luis E. Arreaga
• Deputy Chief of Mission—David Hodge
• Political and Economic Counselor—Drew Blakeney
• Management Officer—Leo Hession
• Defense Attache—Col. Humberto Rodriguez
• Military Assistance Group—Col. Linda Gould
• Consul General—John Lowell
• Regional Security Officer—John Eustace
• Public Affairs Officer—David J. Young
• Drug Enforcement Administration—Michael O'Brien
• Agricultural Attache—Robert Hoff
• Commercial Attache—Patricia Wagner
• USAID/G-CAP Director—Wayne Nilsestuen

• Guatemalan Americans
• Guatemalan Immigration to the United States
• Foreign relations of the United States
• Foreign relations of Guatemala
• Guatemalan Civil War
• School of the Americas Watch
• Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
• Syphilis experiments in Guatemala
• 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of State website https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/. (U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets)

• Streeter, Stephen M. "Interpreting the 1954 US Intervention in Guatemala: Realist, Revisionist, and Postrevisionist Perspectives." History Teacher 34.1 (2000): 61–74. online
• Taft-Morales, Maureen. "Guatemala: political, security, and Socioeconomic conditions and U.S. relations." Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Briefs (2014) online

Media related to Relations of Guatemala and the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• History of Guatemala - U.S. relations