The news shook international media and filled millions of Guatemalans with pride: in April 2025, Castillo Hermanos, parent company of Cervecería Centro Americana, acquired Harvest Hill, maker of the well-known American juice brand SunnyD, for $1.5 billion. This transaction is one of the largest recent Latin American investments in the United States, surpassing FEMSA’s purchase of Valora in 2023 ($1.15 billion) and historic acquisitions such as Bimbo’s purchase of Sara Lee ($959 million in 2011). Amid the $3 trillion invested by the United States to stimulate its economy through the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment Act, Guatemala proved that it can not only compete in the demanding North American market, but win decisively.
This achievement is not isolated: it is part of a shift in the regional investment landscape. Historically, Colombian companies invested around $6.695 billion in Central America between 2013 and 2018 in strategic sectors such as banking, energy, and consumer goods. However, today the balance is beginning to tilt toward the Guatemalan side. Cementos Progreso invested $335 million in Cemex assets in Costa Rica and El Salvador in 2022, and later made another strategic acquisition in the Dominican Republic in 2024 for $950 million. CMI, after investing in Ecuador’s Pronaca in 2018, expanded its presence in the United States in 2024 with the purchase of Del Real Foods, consolidating a cumulative investment of more than $190 million in the Pollo Campero division, with the opening of its 100th restaurant in the United States in 2024 and the ambitious plan to reach 250 locations by 2027. Meanwhile, Ingenio Magdalena acquired 80% of Agrícola del Chira in Peru in March 2025, a strategic operation covering 9,400 hectares of farmland valued at an estimated $160 million, projecting Guatemala as an agro-industrial leader in the Andean region.
Companies such as Pantaleon Holdings are not far behind, operating in six countries and generating more than 1.1 million tons of sugar and byproducts annually. Although still far from Brazilian giants such as Copersucar and Raízen, Guatemala is already the sixth-largest sugar-producing country in the world per capita, with 316 pounds annually, surpassed only by giants such as Brazil and Australia, and niche countries such as Mauritius and Eswatini. Licorera Botrán, thanks to Ron Zacapa, has positioned Guatemala at the top globally, earning distinctions such as induction into the International Rum Festival Hall of Fame.
But Guatemala does not triumph only through companies. Its individual talents have also shined across the world: Doroteo Guamuch Flores won the Boston Marathon in 1952; Adriana Ruano earned the historic gold medal and Jean Pierre Brol the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games; Erick Barrondo made history with the country’s first medal in London 2012, and Luis Grijalva stood out in Olympic athletics. Miguel Ángel Asturias (Literature, 1967) and Rigoberta Menchú (Peace, 1992) elevated our name by winning two Nobel Prizes. Artists such as Ricardo Arjona, Gaby Moreno, and Oscar Isaac have transcended borders. Luis von Ahn revolutionized global education with Duolingo, now valued in the billions.
The fact that Guatemala is now becoming a global exporter of capital and talent is no coincidence. It is the natural continuation of a millennia-old tradition of trade and wealth. Since the first millennium, Guatemala was the commercial epicenter of the Maya world. The obsidian mines of El Chayal, near Kaminaljuyú, supplied up to 95% of the consumption of key sites such as Tikal and Calakmul and reached as far as Teotihuacán, the largest metropolis in the Americas of its time.
During the colonial period, Guatemala represented nearly 50% of Hispanic American exports to New Spain. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Guatemala dominated the indigo market, exporting up to 1.2 million pounds annually in the 18th century, approximately 60% of all indigo entering through the port of Seville. After Independence, our cochineal surpassed Mexico’s in 1850, with a record export of 1.5 million pounds, dominating the market of the British Empire.
We cannot settle for occasional victories; we must aspire to a nation that lives in permanent success. The path is drawn, the numbers are clear, and our history supports it. The moment to build that country is today.
Since the late 19th century, coffee has defined much of our economy. In 1880, Guatemala produced 3% of the global market. Today, Guatemala maintains a similar global share, but stands out for quality, as coffee from Antigua and Huehuetenango wins international awards with scores exceeding 90 in the Cup of Excellence, generating record prices at international auctions.
Cacao, used as currency in Maya times, dominated regional trade until it supplied 50% of cacao exports to New Spain during the Spanish period. Today it is being reborn to conquer the global artisan chocolate market. Guatemalan cardamom, with exports of around 29,000 tons annually, remains the absolute world leader, known on the market as “green gold.” Bananas represent nearly 4% of global production, with 4.5 million tons annually, and palm oil adds another 800,000 tons, reaching more than 1% of global output, figures that reinforce our outstanding participation in international agricultural markets.
These stories are not simply memories or isolated successes. They are compelling proof that when Guatemala dreams big, it is capable of achieving extraordinary things. Guatemalan talent has the potential and strength to conquer the most competitive markets in the world. We have done it before, we are doing it now, and we must continue doing it always.
But we need more: we need a country that dares to dream ambitiously, a country where excellence is the norm and not the exception. We need an environment where investment, innovation, and economic freedom are protected and encouraged without fear or limits. The boldness of companies now conquering foreign markets and the athletes and artists succeeding globally is a powerful reminder of what we are capable of.
We cannot settle for occasional victories; we must aspire to a nation that lives in permanent success. The path is drawn, the numbers are clear, and our history supports it. The moment to build that country is today. Let us act now so that this awakening forever marks our destiny as a nation called to conquer the glories of the world.
History proves that we can. And now, it is up to us to show the world that this is only the beginning.
