Guatemala: Secretary of State Clinton’s Visit · Global Voices
Renata Avila

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Guatemala on Friday, March 5 where she met President Álvaro Colom and other leaders from Central America and the Caribbean. She addressed security issues relating to the War on Drugs and support from the U.S. for normalizing Honduran relations with the international community. However, she abstained from openly discussing immigration reform which could affect more than 400,000 undocumented Guatemalans living in the U.S. While many Guatemalan bloggers were eagerly anticipating the concert from heavy metal band Metallica, there are a couple of posts about Clinton's visit:
Secretary Clinton and President Colom in Guatemala. Photo by Gobierno de Guatemala and used under a Creative Commons license.
Much of the information from Clinton's recent Latin America tour, which included Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Guatemala could be followed on Twitter using the hashtag #hillarytravel. Regarding her stop in Guatemala, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela (@WHAAsstSecty) tweeted Clinton's statements:
#SecClinton: We will combat organized crime, transnational gangs and trafficking and together keep the people of Guatamala safe.
#SecClinton: We are well aware that Central America is waging their own very intense efforts against the criminal cartels.
Robin Martínez on the blog CGN [es] shared a funny anecdote about Clinton's visit:
Como víctima de su propia naturaleza humana, la señora Clinton sufrió  un especial momento de resequedad en la garganta que por largo rato  interrumpió su intervención en la conferencia de prensa. Luego de la tercera de ellas, una asistente de la Presidencia se  acercó para darle un vaso con agua, gesto que Clinton agradeció e  inmediatamente resolvió su problema. Cuando bebió su fresca agua guatemalteca, esperó unos segundos y con  voz nueva, continuó sus declaraciones a los periodistas.  Como decimos los Guatemaltecos Hillary, la pura tos.
However, in more serious matters, Mario Rodriguez from the blog of the Center for Development Research and Information (CIID for its initials in Spanish), provides his opinions on Secretary Clinton's motivations for her visit after the proposal emerged for creating a new regional bloc which would not include the United States and Canada.  Rodriguez does not buy that it was only about drug trafficking [es]:
Estados Unidos en este campo actua hipócritamente. Utiliza el tráfico  de drogas como pretexto para militarizar la zona, y como arma política  para intervenir en los países, ya sea por medio de la cooperación o por  medio de acusaciones a gobierno no amigos de Estados Unidos de propiciar  el uso de su territorio para el tráfico de drogas. Por eso la visita de Hillary Clinton al país para hablar del problema del narcotráfico es para reirse.
U.S. is a hypocrite in this issue. Using the illegal drug trade as excuse to militarize the region, and as a political weapon to interfere in internal affairs of other countries either by international aid or via accusations towards governments that do not hold the status of “friends” of US, blaming them for facilitating illegal drug trafficking through its territories.  That is why I think Hillary Clinton visiting the country “to discuss the drug traffic problem” is laughable.
Twitter user @yomararnold jokingly writes that perhaps the real reason behind Hillary's visit [es] to Guatemala was her desire to attend Metallica concert.