Guatemala City, August 18 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Former Uruguayan President Jose Mujica was greeted by a 35-car caravan of VW Beetles -in memory of the car the former president drove during his time in office- as he arrived in Guatemala for a conference Monday.

“Strange things have happened to me with that Volkswagen,” said Mujica about his 1987 Beetle upon his arrival at the Guatemala City airport.  However, the former president did not go into detail.

The caravan was organized to honor the former president, “a historic example that you can do politics without becoming rich,” said former Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo, who met Mujica at the airport.
     
“In Guatemala there is a strong social decomposition and Mujica is an icon of another way of doing things.  And that inspires us to fight the battles we need to win,” added Cerezo.

Mujica traveled to Guatemala to attend the 6th Esquipulas Forum, a regional Central American and Caribbean integration initiative.  This year’s two-day forum, titled “30 years of Democracy, Development and Integration: Progress and Challenges in Policy and Economic Transformations,” began on Monday and is presided over by former Guatemalan President Cerezo.

The round-table discussions on Monday mainly addressed local issues related to justice, health, youth and tax revenues, as well as Guatemala’s general elections, scheduled for September 6th.

Valerie Julliand, resident coordinator for the United Nations Development Program, criticized Guatemala's development and made a call to eradicate the extreme inequalities in the country.  Currently, 62 percent of the population lives in poverty, while thousands suffer from malnutrition.