GOVERNMENT

Alejandro Giammattei

President of Guatemala

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei became the first Latin American leader to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022 when he landed in Kyiv. During his stay in Ukraine, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and traveled to the town of Bucha, the site of a horrific massacre of nearly 500 Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces in March, where he called on the international community not to “observe passively.” The trip to Ukraine was in keeping with Giammattei’s foreign policy activism; two years ago, the Guatemalan leader confirmed that his country’s Embassy in Israel would remain in Jerusalem, while he has also outlawed Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed, Lebanon-based Shi’a terrorist organization that has bolstered its activities in Latin America in recent decades. (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)