Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Tuesday, marking the first visit by a Latin American head of state to Ukraine since Russia’s latest invasion in February.
A spokesman for Giammattei told Breitbart News the administration’s “main goal” of the visit “was to call for peace as the first Latin American country coming to Ukraine,” a step made more urgent in part because a war-induced halt in grain trade has exacerbated Guatemala’s food insecurity.
The spokesman added Giammattei wanted to offer to be “a voice” for Zelensky in Latin America, where countries have been hesitant to voice opposition to Russian aggression because of Russia’s ties to corrupt regimes in the region, including those in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
The conservative Giammattei’s approach has marked a stark contrast to the enthusiastic support Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has received in launching a full-scale assault on Ukraine from Latin American patron countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. Venezuela’s socialist regime has even described the invasion as inspirational and potentially a blueprint with which to invade neighboring Colombia.
Zelensky’s Ukraine maintains an embassy in Havana, where Cubans have been arrested for expressing solidarity with his government in the war.
Under Giammattei, Guatemala has vocally opposed all three communist/socialist regimes in Latin America. In an interview with Breitbart News in June, the Guatemalan president condemned reports that leftist President Joe Biden was seeking to negotiate with the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, calling any purchase of Venezuelan oil “nourishing the devil.” Any purchase of Venezuelan oil would likely subsidize the war against Ukraine, as Maduro’s regime is heavily indebted to Russia.
Giammattei and Zelensky issued a joint statement summarizing their meeting, stating they condemned Russian aggression in Ukraine and were optimistic that the international food shortage caused by a Russian blockade and impacting several countries, including Guatemala, would improve.
The presidents deemed Russia’s “occupation and blockade of Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as the destruction by Russian troops of agricultural lands, machinery, grain storage facilities and enterprises for the processing of agricultural products and food production unacceptable.”
The two leaders praised an agreement made in Istanbul to resume exporting grain, such as corn and wheat, though that agreement was almost immediately followed by Russian missile strikes hitting a key Black Sea port, signaling a potentially rocky execution of the agreement, per the AFP.
Giammattei and Zelensky nevertheless “expressed hope that the Russian side would strictly adhere to the agreements reached,” according to their joint statement.
During Giammattei’s visit, Zelensky also revealed officials had signed onto an intergovernmental agreement to lift certain visa restrictions for Guatemalans traveling to Ukraine.
The two leaders said in their joint statement they had each “expressed interest in cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Guatemala in the field of education, science and technology, agreed to increase the exchange of students and interns in the future, as well as to facilitate the implementation of joint scientific projects.”
Write to Ashley Oliver aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.