Guatemala creates honorary consulate in Utah; full-service consulate may be coming

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Guatemala has created an honorary consulate in Utah to represent those from the nation living in the state and to strengthen bilateral relations.
Marcos Guzmán, originally from Guatemala but now living in Orem, will serve in the volunteer post.
Guatemala is also considering creating a full-service consulate in Utah, joining Mexico, El Salvador and Peru.

SALT LAKE CITY — Guatemala has established an honorary consulate in Utah reflecting what boosters say are warm relations between the Central American nation and the state and a desire to advance the bilateral relationship.

The bond between Utah and Guatemala is "not just a relationship of ceremony and welcome but a relationship of substance and means," said Jonathan Tichy, president of the Utah Consular Corps and honorary consul for the Czech Republic in Salt Lake City. "There are many of our friends and neighbors that live among us from Guatemala, and so we're starting from a high place and taking it to the next level."

Marcos Guzmán, originally from Guatemala but now living in Orem, will serve as honorary consul. Nery Ramos y Ramos, vice president of the Guatemalan Congress, was among those present for Thursday's ceremony announcing his elevation to the post, and he said creation of the honorary consulate is a key step toward creation of a full-service consulate in Utah, perhaps within a year or two.

"This is the first step," Ramos y Ramos said. He hopes the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry budgets funding for 2027 to create a full-service consulate, allowing the country to join Mexico, El Salvador and Peru, the only three countries with formal consulates in Utah.

Guatemala has named Marcos Guzmán, left, to head the nation's new honorary consulate in Utah. Nery Ramos y Ramos, right, the vice president of the Guatemalan Congress, attended the ceremony Thursday in Salt Lake City where Guzmán was formally named. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

Guzmán, who's actually been filling the honorary consul role since last April, will represent the Guatemalan population in Utah and focus on strengthening ties between Guatemala and Utah as part of his duties in the volunteer post. Some 20,000 people of Guatemalan descent live in Utah, Ramos y Ramos estimates, though U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2024 put the population at around 12,000.

"I receive this responsibility with humility and with a firm commitment to strengthen the bonds and friendship, culture, commerce, education and cooperation between Guatemala and the state of Utah," said Guzmán, who runs a heating and air conditioning company. The new honorary consulate represents "a bridge between our people and our institutions and the many opportunities we can do together."

Ramos y Ramos noted the potential for trade between Guatemala and Utah, another facet of bilateral relations. A potential candidate in Guatemalan presidential elections next year, he met Wednesday with Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and visited Washington, D.C., earlier in the week.

"There are enormous commercial opportunities, enormous investment opportunities, which are some of the other topics we've come to explore in the state of Utah," Ramos y Ramos said. This visit marks Ramos y Ramos' third visit to Utah in three years, including a visit last year with other Guatemalan lawmakers that included a stop in Ogden.

Franz Kolb, director of the Center for International Business and Diplomacy within the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development, also spoke Thursday, lauding the Guatemalan people. Whenever Utahns travel to the country, "they come back as better people than as they left because of the warmth, of the sincerity, of the kindness of the good peoples of Guatemala," he said.

Thirty-two honorary consulates operate in Utah, in addition to the the three full-service consulates. The Guatemalan Consulate in Denver still formally covers Utah, assisting Guatemalans here seeking passports and other documentation, among other things.

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