GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo said Thursday his country is focused on maintaining a “good” relationship with the United States while working to uphold international law and peaceful dispute resolution, an approach he described as increasingly urgent following the U.S. removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Arévalo positioned Guatemala as a country intent on navigating an unstable global moment without sacrificing either its partnership with Washington or its sovereign standing.
“The world in general is experiencing a phase of disorder, disorder in the sense that the norms of the old order are breaking,” Arévalo said. “The problem is how do we recover that sense of order to get the world to fit together again.”
Guatemala’s balancing act reflects a challenge facing smaller nations across the Americas: cooperating closely with a Trump administration that has shown willingness to intervene in sovereign states while retaining enough diplomatic space to preserve their own interests.
Strong ties, shared priorities
Arévalo described current U.S.-Guatemala relations as robust enough that intervention was not a concern. “We have right now a level of relations so strong and strategic that we don’t even consider that scenario,” he said.
That partnership is built on shared priorities in drug trafficking enforcement and immigration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio lauded the relationship during a visit to Guatemala last year. The strong ties also allowed Guatemala to negotiate relief from Trump administration tariffs, Arévalo said.
“We don’t have to hold back or limit our actions against (drug traffickers),” the president said. “We don’t have a historic relationship with drug trafficking or an arrangement with any cartel.”
The relationship carries particular resonance given Guatemala’s history with U.S. intervention. Arévalo was born in Uruguay, where his father, former Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo, lived in exile following a 1954 CIA-backed coup that ousted President Jacobo Árbenz. Military dictatorships and decades of civil war followed. Before taking office two years ago, Arévalo worked in international dispute resolution.
Immigration and deportations
On deportations, Arévalo said the number of Guatemalans removed from the United States has not increased compared to previous U.S. administrations. He declined to comment on the broader U.S. immigration crackdown, describing it as an internal American matter outside the bilateral relationship.
Domestic stakes: the attorney general clock
At home, Arévalo is focused on the upcoming selection processes for Constitutional Court justices and the attorney general — appointments he cast as decisive for Guatemala’s democratic trajectory.
Attorney General Consuelo Porras has pursued Arévalo’s party since before he won the presidency. International observers have characterized her investigations as politically motivated. The United States government has sanctioned Porras for allegedly undermining democracy by obstructing corruption investigations.
With 121 days remaining until Porras’ term ends, Arévalo framed the coming months as consequential.
“The democratic development of the country is on the line, the possibility of having democratic institutions,” he said.