New Guatemalan Foreign Minister appointed

Fernando Carrera

While on the referendum, there are major changes in the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry to report tonight. Foreign Minister Harold Caballeros has stepped down and is being replaced by Fernando Carrera, the Minister of Economic Planning and Programming for the Presidency. Caballeros, according to reports from Guatemala, is on his final mission to Kuwait where Guatemala is opening a new Embassy. Carrera will head over to the Foreign Ministry on Monday to take charge of his new assignment. It is not known if the change will have any bearing on the October simultaneous referendum on whether the people of both Belize and Guatemala support going to the ICJ to settle the claim to Belizean territory. Caballeros was in Belize in February, 2012; at the time he made strong declarations agitating that compensation be paid to the family of Guatemalan national, Juan Choc Chub, who had been killed in the Chiquibul.  But more recently, in October last year, he met with the Foreign Minister Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington in Guatemala along with the Group of Friends of Belize. It is said that he and Elrington enjoyed a good relationship. The change is part of a major shake-up in the Guatemalan government one year after it assumed office. At least four other ministers have been replaced and it is expected that others will follow.