Heads up – Embassy 10 – July/August 2008

Living on the edge

“Being close to danger can be invigorating,” says the thrill-seeking Guatemalan Ambassador to London who is also a keen scuba diver and dreams of getting eyeball to eyeball with a Great White shark one day.

The father of seven likes his diplomacy action-packed too, and always finds himself in places when things get interesting.

Matta Fahsen was posted to Spain in the final years of Franco’s authoritarian rule and witnessed Spain’s transition to democracy. While in Madrid, he also oversaw relations with Portugal during the Carnation Revolution.

He was then drawn to the drama of Chile where he observed the defeat of Pinochet’s dictatorship and the country’s return to democracy.

Then he was posted as Ambassador to Colombia, when the government was confronting drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was at the peak of his powers.

But Matta Fahsen’s toughest job was yet to come: opening Guatemala’s first embassy in Moscow in 1994 when Russia was still in turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Taking a breather in The Hague, the Ambassador made his first foray into multilateral diplomacy at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – where he argued for chemicals used in cocaine production to be put under surveillance.

He also learned the ropes at the International Court of Justice, which would assist him in his next job as Executive Secretary of the Belize Commission, charged with the task of finding a solution to the longstanding territorial dispute with Belize.

Guatemala claims the southern half of Belize and full access to the Caribbean. Bilateral relations have improved, but since the OAS-brokered agreement was rejected by Guatemala in 2003, both countries have agreed to hand the issue over to the International Court of Justice – subject to a referendum in Guatemala.

“This is a very important moment in our history,” says Matta Fahsen. “We need a real solution that will improve our bilateral relations and will improve relations for the region. Belize is the gateway to the Caribbean community, and Guatemala the gateway to Central America. So let’s live in peace.”

Britain, as a former colonial power in Belize, functions as one of the ‘Group of Friends’ supporting a peaceful resolution so the issue will be part of his brief, but will not be his main focus.

That, he says, is enlisting Britain’s help in overcoming the daunting problems facing Guatemala’s post conflict society, following a civil war in which more than 200,000 were killed or disappeared and 45,000 were displaced.

With a new government sworn in this January, its priorities are poverty reduction and human rights, he says.

Reintegrating over 20,000 combatants and 45,000 displaced people into society, combined with poverty and drug trafficking has caused security problems in the country. With limited funds to address the issues, the government needs help, he says.

“We need a hand to solve the issue – not just money but also know-how.”

He hopes that Guatemala, as a tariff-free gateway to the US market, will benefit from an injection of British investment. He will also be active in the international organisations in London dealing with Guatemala’s main exports, sugar, coffee and cocoa.

He intends to get stuck into debates on issues such as biofuels, which will affect Guatemala’s sugar exports.

It’s a complex issue, he admits: “Food prices are increasing as farmers switch to the production of biofuels – while some countries are starving.”

Cooperating with Britain in finding solutions to combat climate change – from reforestation to recycling - will also be top of his agenda, he says.