Briceño Talked Trade and Drug Interdiction with Guatemalan President

John Briceño

Last week, Prime Minister John Briceño was in Guatemala for an official visit with President Alejandro Giammattei.  PM Briceño says that it’s the first time a president has invited a Prime Minister from Belize for a one-on-one meeting. He told Open Your Eyes that they discussed a range of issues – from trade to security, education and border issues.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“But of course it came down to the issue of trade and cooperation – understanding that we have borders and Guatemala is a huge country compared to us and we have so many opportunities to be able to sell our products. As it is we are selling cattle, pork, eggs, chicken and corn and there is so much more that can be done. The President, like us in Belize, wants to formalize that and so we have agreed that we are going to continue to work on that partial scope agreement that we have and to expand that partial scope agreement to be able to sign agreements in the protection of investments in both Belize and Guatemala. So, I felt that it was a good discussion; a fruitful discussion.  The issue of security in the region came up, the issue of narco-trafficking. Guatemala has been investing in the country considerable amount of monies in how they can follow these narco planes when they leave South America and come into the region trying to land in Guatemala or Belize. They have a radar system that they can track them. Guatemala is prepared to share that data with us real time and so that is something that our foreign minister, Minister Courtenay and Minister Musa can have talks to set up that cooperation because that can also help us.”