Julie is taking a well deserved break, so this is David at the helm for a couple of weeks. In the Embassy this week we were pleased to welcome our Regional Consul, Marie Forsyth, on a visit. Marie’s based in Mexico City, but has responsibility for our Consular sections and Honorary Consuls in all 10 countries from Mexico down to Colombia – a busy role! At a reception hosted by the Embassy on Tuesday night in recognition of Marie’s recent accreditation as Consul here in Guatemala, I had the opportunity to thank all our consular contacts for their continued support, such as local authorities and businesses, British citizens who help us out in looking out for their fellow Brits in the community, and consular colleagues from other Embassies. Marie also had these words to say:
Hi, it’s a pleasure to be visiting Guatemala again. As David mentioned, I’m the Regional Consul, working in Mexico but with accreditation for all 10 countries in the region. We have a British Embassy in 7 of these countries, and Honorary Consuls in the other 3, including a great team here in Guatemala. I hope to meet more of our British community and important consular contacts in Guatemala on future visits, as I plan to travel here to see the team a few times each year!
Having said hello to Marie this week, we’re also saying goodbye to another friend who’s been doing a valuable consular project for us over the past couple of months. Nathalie has been working in the Embassy on an internship with our Consular section – I’ll let her tell you in her own words what she’s been up to:
Over the last 2 months, the Regional Consular Team has been working on a project to update the information that we have on the number of British, Commonwealth and European Union citizens in the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The purpose of this is to keep better information to act upon in case of an emergency or crisis.
Therefore, we contacted organizations such as hotels, schools, tour operators, business related companies, NGO’s, etc., to get an estimated number of the citizens that we have responsibility for that are residents in the region, and also an average of the number of tourists and visitors per month. This will not only help us to have our records up to date, but also to have a point of contact in any emergency or crisis situation and to provide an even better consular assistance.
Thanks for all your hard work, Nathalie, and we’ll miss having you around!