November 12 |

President-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, held a two-day tour of Washington, United States, where he met with different sectors and U.S. officials and migrant organizations.

Improving consular services, maximizing remittances through banks and promoting electoral civic participation were some of the topics discussed of interest to the Guatemalan community in the United States. Between 25 and 30 leaders and representatives of migrant associations from Washington, Texas, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, among others, participated.

The president-elect was accompanied on the tour by Francisco Villagrán, Guatemala’s former ambassador to various international organizations. The three issues were put on the table, but there was no in-depth discussion on how they will be addressed by the Executive Branch during the next four years.

With respect to consular attention, according to Ben Monterroso, migrant leader, it was stated that the processing of passports at the consulates should be improved. He expressed that there is difficulty in scheduling appointments, there are no passport booklets or it takes several weeks to process them. This document is necessary to carry out procedures in the North American country, even to obtain a driver’s license in some states.

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“We talked about the consulates, we are clear that we have to improve both the service and the documents, because we continue with the same pending as always, that there are no passport books, no passports or no appointments”, he indicated.

As a second point, the representatives expressed to Arevalo the interest in a way that remittances can be collected in Guatemala in a proper way. In that sense, it was said that these will be maximized through two banks, however at the moment it is not known which ones they will be.

Although there is no clarity on specific actions to comply with the request, Monterroso explained that this is necessary so that Guatemalan families can take advantage of them in a better way.

“To make sure that there is transparency in collections, all those kinds of things and to see how remittances can be maximized, not many details were discussed,” he said.

The third topic was to support the civic participation of Guatemalans abroad. Monterroso pointed out that they are aware that this function does not correspond to the Presidency, but he can lead an improvement in this sense.

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“It is not entirely up to him, but he can be a leader and make sure that what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for is done in an appropriate manner,” Monterroso said.

In addition, he pointed out that it was made clear that they want to have more recognition, not only as Guatemalans abroad but as the different indigenous communities to which they belong,

“That it be recognized that Guatemala is no longer only in the 22 departments, we have a department called the United States,” he emphasized.

In the opinion of the migrants, they should receive special treatment like other groups that are benefited in the country.

The communication team of the elected government was asked for an opinion on the meeting, but did not respond.

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