A series of disputes between President Ma Ying-jeou’s security personnel and those of Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom marred Ma’s first day in Guatemala on Friday.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the first dispute arose when Ma’s bodyguards wanted to enter the security area where Colom was welcoming Ma with a 21-gun salute and a military honor guard. Guatemalan security personnel refused to allow them to enter.
Wang said security issues are usually negotiated beforehand, but the “misunderstanding” was the result of communication problems and the demand by all of Ma’s bodyguards to be allowed into the secure zone.
Photo: AP/ Guatemalan Foreign Ministry
After communicating through translators, three bodyguards were allowed in, Wang said.
A dispute over access arose again later that day when Ma and Colom were signing a joint statement.
Only one of Ma’s bodyguards was allowed to enter the secure area after he agreed to surrender his weapon.
Wang said security is usually arranged by the host country when two leaders attend the same event and the visiting leader’s security personnel usually do not carry weapons.
This policy would have been the same had the situation been reversed, he said.
Meanwhile, Colom canceled plans to accompany Ma on a visit to Tikal National Park on Saturday, sending his foreign minister and cultural vice minister in his place.
Wang said Colom had to cancel his trip to Tikal because he had other engagements.
Ma also canceled planned interviews with Guatemalan journalists, but Wang said they had been canceled prior to the trip.
In other developments, El Salvador’s incoming foreign minister, Hugo Martinez, said “necessary consultations and studies” were needed before his country would decide on establishing diplomatic ties with China.
Martinez told Diario Co Latino that Salvadoran president-elect Mauricio Funes would hold talks with “Taiwan President” Ma.
The newspaper said that although El Salvador intended to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing, Martinez declined to discuss in detail the new government’s position on its relations with Taiwan.
Martinez said both Taipei and Beijing had been invited to today’s inauguration and if both sides sent representatives, there would be “bilateral contacts.”
Ambassador to El Salvador Carlos Liao (廖世傑), however, has said that Beijing had not arranged to send a delegation before the registration deadline passed last Monday.
Martinez also told newspaper that Funes would announce in his inaugural address that his administration would resume recognition of Cuba.
Martinez said the lack of diplomatic ties with Cuba deprived Salvadorans of their right to engage in commercial, educational and medical exchanges with their Cuban counterparts.
Ma is leading a 159-member delegation to attend today’s inauguration, including first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青), local government heads, college officials, student representatives, and a performance group. The delegation arrived in El Salvador on Saturday.
Ma is scheduled to return to Taipei on Thursday after a transit stop in Seattle.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is