UDP says no to commission on Guatemala

The move was telegraphed on Wednesday when Mesopotamia Representative Michael Finnegan proclaimed a linkage between the construction of government houses on land he claimed belongs to the UDP and his party’s participation in a unified commission on the Guatemala issue. Today Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow left no room for doubt. Calling the construction “an act of utmost bad faith”, Barrow described Prime Minister Said Musa’s invitation to serve on the National Advisory Commission as just “another cynical public relations ploy”. The rejection of the proposal was contained in a letter Barrow wrote to Musa, which was released to the press by the UDP. It went on to criticize Musa’s handling of the entire Guatemala issue, going so far as to accuse the Prime Minister of being “soft on Guatemala.” Presumably, his mortal sin was not reacting fast enough to reject recent press reports that Guatemala had reaffirmed its hard line claim to Belize.