Foreign Minister Says Belize Receptive and Reciprocal

Wilfred Elrington

Despite niceties over the years on the diplomatic front, relationships on the ground between the two countries have shown bumps and bruises. The two foreign ministers spoke of trying to reverse the situation, especially as it relates to the western border, where business to Melchor slowed down in the wake of the shooting death of Danny Conorquie at Caracol in 2015. His killers, believed to be Guatemalans, are still at large. Elrington says the task for both countries is to keep things peaceful.

Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Of course I sought to assure her that Belize is interested in having good, cordial relationships with Guatemala. I took the opportunity to point out to her that the last time we had the incident with the young man, and Belizeans stopped going across to Guatemala because of the fallout from that incident, the authorities at Melchor had actually approached their administration to complain about the fact that they were losing business, they were not getting the necessary foreign exchange because of the cessation of business between Belizeans and Guatemalans in Melchor, so that for them it is a very important aspect of the relationship. The like manner in which Belize contributed largely to the development of Chetumal, we are doing the very same thing in relation to Guatemala, so that it is in Guatemala’s interests as much as it is in Belize’s interest for us to have a good, harmonious relationship between our two countries.”