Mexican President arrives for whirlwind visit

It was a day when the nation of Belize took a brief rest from the daily media drumbeat of politics, crime and scandal… to unite in the welcome of a visiting head of state. But Mexican President Vicente Fox is no ordinary visitor. As the leader of a neighbouring nation of a hundred and six million people and an economy weighing in at over a trillion U.S. dollars, Fox, like his nation, is a presence we cannot ignore.

His whirlwind visit, lasting less than twenty-four hours, began this morning when the presidential jet, a formidable Boeing 757, touched down at the Philip Goldson International Airport. With the official greeting slated for Belmopan, the airport welcome was low key, handled by Belize City Major David Fonseca, with each country’s ambassador in attendance. The Mexican delegation, which includes the governors of a number of southern Mexican states, foreign ministry and other government officials, security detail and a large corps of journalists, was transferred to a waiting squadron of Puma helicopters belonging to the Mexican Air Force. Like gigantic mosquitoes, they headed into the wind and wheeled to the west where a crowd of dignitaries awaited them in the nation’s capital.