ZAGREB, March 10, 2018 – Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is flying to South America on Saturday, and the first stop of her Latin American tour, which will last until 20 March, is Argentina, and after that she will fly to Chile and Brazil.
After the late President Franjo Tuđman’s visit to Buenos Aires in 1994, Grabar Kitarović will be the first Croatian head of state to visit that South American country. Before Grabar-Kitarović, Croatian president Stjepan Mesić was in Chile in 2005.
During her official visit to Argentina, Grabar-Kitarović will be received by President Mauricio Macri and Vice President Gabriela Michetti on Monday. In Buenos Aires the Croatian head of state will be declared an honorary citizen. On Tuesday, she will attend the opening of an Argentine-Croatian business forum.
In La Plata, she will visit the “Juan Vucetich” police academy named after Ivan Vučetić, a Croatian-born Argentine anthropologist and police officer who pioneered the use of fingerprinting. In Rosario, she will open Croatia’s honorary consulate.
In Argentina, Grabar-Kitarović will meet representatives of the ethnic Croatian community that is estimated to have 200,000-250,000 members, and there is an ethnic Croat community of a similar size in Chile. An estimated 30,000 ethnic Croats live in Brazil.
The Croatian president will go to Chile on Thursday, 14 March, for an economic forum in Santiago de Chile. She will also attend the inauguration of President Sebastian Pinera on Sunday. Grabar-Kitarović is expected to visit local Croats in Punta Arenas and Antofagasta.
On Monday, 19 March, she will start a working visit to Brazil, during which she will visit the Croat community in Sao Paulo.
