In recent days Guatemala has been drawn into the machinations of international relations. Guatemala's putative membership of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), according to various members of the UK press (The Guardian, The Independent, BBC), has been at the asking of Japan in its quest to overcome the current anti-whaling consensus at the IWC. Reuters reported though that Guatemala was not going to attend the meeting of the IWC:

"Guatemala, for example, is a new member expected to side with Japan, but it dropped plans to attend due to a sudden outburst of public opposition to the government's intention to back whaling, said Greenpeace International spokesman Mike Townsley."

What this episode has done, is shine the light back on how wealthier countries use their development budgets to buy influence pretty much as a matter of course. Japan gave £11,728,532 to Guatemala in 2005. The week before Roger Burbach was commenting in The Guardian on how:

"The Bush administration is backing the candidacy of Guatemala in its campaign to stop President Hugo Chávez from winning a seat for Venezuela [on the UN Security Council]. Five of the 10 rotating seats on the security council are opening up in October, and one of them traditionally goes to a Latin American nation."

Is it unrealistic to ask where is the discussion of Guatemala's own national interest? Some will say this game of power and influence is just the harsh machiavellean reality of international relations. Others that it demonstrates how little big nations ever bother to concern themselves with smaller states foreign policies. No-one will dismiss the Guatemalan whaling lobby again though that's for sure.