Guatemala welcomed Taiwan’s Escuadrón Naval de la Amistad on Sunday in front of the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in zone 1 of Guatemala City, where the visiting sailors staged maneuvers, music and martial arts before President Bernardo Arévalo, Defense Minister Henry Sáenz and Taiwan’s ambassador Vivia Chang.
The flotilla, made up of three warships and more than 780 officers and crew members, left Taiwan in late February and crossed the Pacific, passed through the Panama Canal, reached the Caribbean Sea and traveled more than 20,000 kilometers before arriving in Guatemala after a stop in Belize. The presentation turned into a rare public show of military pageantry and diplomacy, with the government describing it as a sign of cooperation and closer ties between the two nations.
For Taiwan, the visit carried more than ceremony. The delegation said the mission has been carried out continuously since 1967 and is meant to represent the Taiwanese government abroad while supporting Taiwanese communities outside the country. The 2026 voyage will be the 60th mission, and Guatemala’s stop is the squadron’s seventh visit to the country, following the last one in 2018.
The exchange of honors underscored that relationship. Chang awarded the Naval Merit Medal to seven Guatemalan officers, including the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff, while Sáenz presented the Monja Blanca Medal to seven Taiwanese officers, among them the squadron commander. A thematic gallery mounted on the flagship PAN-SHI showed diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Guatemala, along with shipbuilding, drones, unmanned boats, tourism, culture and emblematic products.
The visit also has a practical next step. Seven frigate cadets were scheduled to board the squadron on Monday for training at sea and to continue their formation in Taiwan, extending a military exchange that both sides presented as central to the relationship. For Guatemala, the timing came as another major Sunday of public attention unfolded elsewhere in national life, with the country’s sports and political calendar both pressing forward.
