News

On 14 April in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, the convention of Lithuanian honorary consuls in South America focused on consular assistance to Lithuanian citizens, who are arrested by South American law enforcement institutions and sentenced to prison.

The participants of the convention discussed key political, economic and cultural issues, the formation of Lithuania’s international image, the country’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Presidency of the Community of Democracies, also support for the Lithuanian business.

Lithuanian honorary consuls in South America are doing considerable amount of work in the area of consular assistance provision, they visit detained Lithuanian citizens at their own initiative and for their own money as often as they can and mediate for them when contacting their families. Honorary consular officers are not paid by the State of Lithuania.

According to the data available to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently 56 Lithuanian citizens are arrested or sentenced to prison in South American countries. However, the actual number may be about 100, because quite often responsible South American bodies do not inform Lithuanian institutions about detained Lithuanian citizens. The only crime of which all the Lithuanian citizens are accused is transportation of drugs.

The convention was attended by Lithuanian honorary consuls in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru. The event was opened by Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė.

Lithuanian Ambassador to Argentina Vaclovas Šalkauskas thanked the honorary consuls for their active work of promoting Lithuania’s name in South America, the development of bilateral cooperation and the provision of assistance to Lithuanian citizens.