India and Guatemala increase economic ties

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I spent the past few days with my in-laws outside Boston. In academia, we generally are lucky to get a tenure-track job. It's even more unusual to find a job within driving distance of one's family. Actually, I don't know how true that is but it is my impression. Fortunately, for my wife and I, we are within driving distance of her family outside Boston and my family in New York and New Jersey. It was great watching out kids play with their cousins.

Now that I am back I should be back to regular blogging this week.

One of the stories that I found interesting while I was gone was this story on the relationship between Guatemala and India. India hopes to use Guatemala as a springboard to the rest of Central America. In 2012, Guatemala imported nearly $250 million from India. At the same time, it only exported $17 million.

India exports vehicles, pharmaceutical equipment, wires and machinery to Guatemala. It is now looking into investments in various hydroelectric projects. Guatemala, on the other hand, exports cardamon, timber, sugar, paper, cardboard, and scrap metal. things.

There's also the illegal side of their relationship. It appears that Indian migrants are using Guatemala more frequently as a transit point towards entering the US illegally (here, here).

You can also read a 2012 background on the relationship between the two countries from the Government of India's Ministry of External Affairs including a little history on the Indian community in Guatemala.

The Indian community in Guatemala is small and consist of about 30 families and 70 individuals in all, working in the Indian Call Centers like ‘24/7 Customer-Guatemala’ and ‘Genpeck’, in cardamom export trade, in auto parts business, or in cottage industries. Most of them came to Guatemala during the last two decades. Also a Guatemala-India Chamber of Commerce and industry was set up in 2004. There is an India association called Asociasion de Amigos de la India ‘Bharat Bandhu’. 

Besides there are about 450-500 people of India origin who came to this region as indentured laborers during the 19th and early 20 centuries and settled in the coastal Guatemala on Atlantic and a small township of Livingstone. They live in villages, own land, and are involved in fishing, agriculture and tourism sectors. They are mostly 4th-5th generation Indians, and by now well integrated into the local community.