Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) signed a letter of intent with her Guatemalan counterpart on Friday, promising Taiwan aid to help restore buildings and historical sites there that have been repeatedly damaged by earthquakes.
Unlike all other economic and technological aid programs that Taiwan has engaged in with its allied countries, this marks the first "cultural diplomacy" launched by any political leader from Taiwan to help preserve historical sites and enhance bilateral cultural ties with a diplomatic ally, she said.
According to preliminary plans, Taiwan will help restore and renovate the Museum Pilar de Zaragoza and the Monastery Sor Juana located in Antigua, a city of monuments founded in 1543 with a strong Spanish colonial influence.
PHOTO: CNA
Restoration and renovation of the two historical sites are expected to be completed in two years, with a budget of around US$700,000, said Wu Ching-fa (
Lu signed the letter of intent with Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein on Friday in a ceremony witnessed by President Oscar Berger.
Lu and her group toured the city of Antigua on Saturday with Antigua Mayor Antonio Siliezar Portillo. Lu and Siliezar jointly announced the restoration and renovation project during the tour.
Throughout its history, the city now known as Antigua Guatemala, or La Antigua, has been repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, and always the Antiguan-style buildings have been rebuilt. But on July 29, 1773, earthquakes wrought such destruction that officials petitioned the King of Spain to allow them to move the capital to safer ground, which led to the founding in 1776 of present-day Guatemala City.
Antigua was left to rusticate, largely but never completely abandoned. Today, its monumental bougainvillea-draped ruins and its preserved and carefully restored Spanish colonial public buildings and private mansions form a city of charm and romance unequaled in the Americas. In 1979, UNESCO recognized Antigua Guatemala as a Cultural Heritage of Mankind site.
Touring the city, Lu said that Guatemala is a country blessed with a rich cultural heritage. She said she was moved deeply by Guatemala's historical and architectural magnificence the first time she visited the country nine months ago.
The first thing she did after returning to Taiwan was to meet officials and academics to work out a plan to help Guatemala preserve its cultural heritage, Lu said.
Lu gave Siliezar a satellite photo of Antigua City taken by the Taiwanese satellite ROCSAT-II and invited Siliezar to visit Taiwan in the near future.
The vice president also expressed hope that Antigua City will give seedlings of Guatemala's national flower and tree to Taiwan as a gift so that a beautiful Latin garden can be nurtured in Taipei City.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from