Ambassador Mike Mena laid to rest

They came in a multitude of shiny new vehicles as well as on foot…all to pay their respects to a fallen friend and public officer. Fifty-two year old Mike Mena was laid to rest today in an official ceremony that began in Belmopan and ended in San Ignacio. Mena, who served as Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala and Central America since 1995, died last Tuesday in Houston after treatment for cancer. Services for his official funeral were held this afternoon at Belmopan’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Co-Cathedral. The service was led by Bishop O.P. Martin and included appearances by family, friends and professional colleagues. Of particular note was a remembrance by Antonio Castellanos, Deputy Foreign Minister of Guatemala and his country’s former Ambassador to Belize. Castellanos announced the posthumous award to Mena of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal, one of the Guatemalan government’s highest honours. Following the service a procession wound its way to San Ignacio where Mena was laid to rest this evening.