Caribbean & Central America - March 2025

GUATEMALA | Port expansion. On 24 February Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo announced plans to expand Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala’s largest Pacific Ocean port, with cooperation from the US Army Corps of Engineers (Usace). Located in Escuintla department, the port is run by Empresa Portuaria Quetzal (EPQ), a government entity. A Usace delegation was in Guatemala last month to conduct initial assessments of the capacity of the port, which was constructed in the 1980s with the objective of handling up to 700,000 tonnes of cargo but has not undergone expansion since. The proposal to expand the port with US cooperation was announced during the recent visit to Guatemala by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which Guatemala agreed to accept a 40% increase in the number of deportation flights arriving from the US, carrying both undocumented Guatemalans and citizens from other countries. A US embassy press release states that the port’s expansion “is the first step to modernizing Guatemala’s broader infrastructure network, including its railway corridor”. José Antonio Lemus, president of EPQ’s board of directors, said a letter would be inked by both countries in May formalising their commitment regarding the port expansion project with a further technical visit slated for August with the aim of compiling the final necessary information to design it.

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