Julie Chappell » Ambassador to Guatemala, Guatemala City

I love the change of a year. It gives you the chance to take stock of how much has happened and look forward to the year coming in. This is a particularly special end of year period for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, because 2011 was frankly epic and I’m incredibly grateful to the whole British Embassy Team for everything we’ve achieved. Secondly, because 2012 will be my … Read more »2012: the end of the world?

Saturday 10 December marked International Human Rights Day, with a special emphasis this year on human rights and social media.  Over this past year, the British Embassy here in Guatemala has been active in using the social media available to us to put several human rights cases in the spotlight, by attending crucial hearings at the courts together with EU colleagues and then publishing the results in the Ambassador’s blog … Read more »International Day of Human Rights

The British Director for the Americas at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Angus Lapsley, visited Guatemala and El Salvador from 6 to 8 December Director Lapsley discussed a range of bilateral issues, including human rights, democracy, regional security and commercial. See his video blog:  

I can’t believe it’s December! The Christmas trees are up and here in Guatemala the skies are beautiful and sunny. In the British Embassy, preparations continue for two massive events next year. I’ve written quite a bit about the first event and today marks 50 days until we join in the first human chain ever to be seen in a volcano! This is to support the domestic violence campaign “Rompe … Read more »British Week 2012

As we head towards the next international climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, today’s blog comes from Zoe – our new Deputy Ambassador in El Salvador – who has been getting involved in some exciting new work to explore links between the UK and Central America as areas that are potentially very  rich in marine energy and hopefully partners for the future as we work to develop sustainable and … Read more »Marine energy in Central America?

Our blogs are back! Sorry we’ve been offline for a little while. We’ve had a crazy few weeks! But here to fill us in on some of what has been going on is my new “shadow” Manuela. She is the third intern to put up with me in the crazy month of November and has already made an amazing start, getting stuck in to everything we do here at the … Read more »Another star in the Embassy

After months and months of campaigning, last Sunday’s second round of voting revealed Guatemala’s next President, Partido Patriota’s Otto Perez Molina, after he secured 53.74% of the vote to Manuel Baldizón’s 46.26%. Guatemala’s electoral tribunal (TSE) declared the results official, Baldizón conceded defeat and President-elect Molina will be sworn in on 14 January. He will be Guatemala’s first ex-military President since the internal conflict. Now as the dust settles on … Read more »Guatemala’s elections: The future’s orange

Last week gave me a great opportunity to get out of the capital and drive 3 and a bit hours North West to the beautiful city of Quetzaltenango (also commonly known by its indigenous name Xela). This is Guatemala’s second biggest city; a regional economic and educational power house; and a place with a reputation for very hospitable and hard-working people. The key aims of my visit were firstly to … Read more »Getting out and about

It’s all go with preparations for our new Embassy in El Salvador.  This month we welcomed to the region Zoë Smith, a colleague from the UK who’s managing the project of the Embassy opening, and will be working in the new Embassy once operational next year.  She’s been visiting El Salvador, together with our Political Officer Lisa, who has sent this report about one of their activities during the past … Read more »Supporting community policing in El Salvador

Today we have a guest blogger, our Political Officer Lisa, who has written about her recent visit to Retalhuleu. But before I hand over to her, a quick word on the tropical rains that continue to hit Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Sadly once again the vulnerabilities of Central America to tropical storms has been cruelly exposed. Consecutive days of heavy rain have caused flash floods, landslides, widespread damage to … Read more »Protecting Hope, Building a Future