The Queen of Spain has begun her official agenda in Guatemala.
After a long flight of eleven hours, the plane landed Tuesday night at La Aurora airport.
Queen Letizia begins official visit to Guatemala
After a few hours of rest, the Spanish consort, with a big smile, began her activities in the Latin American country with a meeting with the first lady.
Lucrecia Peinado was in charge of welcoming Her Majesty at the National Palace of Culture, and both opted for comfortable shoes.
The two women already knew each other before, as the President of Guatemala and his wife visited Spain in February 2024, when the King and Queen shared lunch with the couple at the Royal Palace in Madrid.
This reunion was very affectionate, and both posed happily in front of the media, which included more than a hundred Guatemalan journalists.
With this good start, the cooperation trip began, Letizia’s ninth since she became Queen in 2014.
As mentioned, both chose comfortable shoes. In Letizia’s case, this was also due to the fracture of the phalanx of her right middle toe. On medical advice, the Queen has been wearing sneakers to her public events for weeks.
In Guatemala, she continued with this trend, swapping the Panama Jack boots she usually wears on her cooperation trips for brown ones with red laces, which matched her aid worker’s vest.
For her part, Lucrecia opted for sneakers, perhaps in a gesture of solidarity with her guest, with whom she has already proven to have a good relationship.
The First Lady chose a brown two-piece ensemble, with an off-the-shoulder top and front buttoning, combined with flowing pants and white sneakers.
After their public reunion, the Queen and the first lady attended a meeting on mental health in Guatemala.
The first lady has an impressive resume in the medical field, as she is a surgeon and anesthesiologist graduated from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, and has a specialization in Health Management.
She met Bernardo Arévalo, the president, in 1999, when they both worked in the office of the United Nations Development Program. They married in 2011, after living together in Switzerland.
Peinado has always been very focused in her career, dedicating herself for more than three decades to the development of health projects in non-governmental organizations, especially in the fight against malaria, HIV and the reduction of maternal deaths.
She has also been involved in women’s issues, especially in the fight against gender violence, an issue she shares with Queen Letizia.
Following the meeting on mental health challenges, the wife of the King of Spain met with members of the Spanish Cooperation Office in Guatemala at the Spanish Cultural Center, and then visited the Escuela Taller del Norte, which is in the midst of construction.
On Thursday, Doña Letizia will see first-hand a water and sanitation, child malnutrition and women’s support project in San José Chacayá.
Afterwards, she will head to Chimaltenango to visit the project for autonomy and comprehensive care for violence-free lives of indigenous and mestizo women.
The trip will conclude with a meeting with representatives of Spanish cooperation at the Ibero-American Training Center in La Antigua. After this, she will return to Spain.