Guatemala’s President-elect Arevalo Visits Belize

President-elect Bernardo Arevalo arrived in Belize this morning where he met with Prime Minister John Briceño and Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay.  The incoming Guatemalan head of state is set to assume office on January fourteenth, 2024.  He arrived at the Philip Goldson International Airport sometime around 10:30 this morning and was escorted to the Laing Building where he called on Belize’s head of government and its foreign minister.  Arevalo’s visit to Belize comes a day after Guatemala’s top court ordered Congress to guarantee the swearing-in of the president-elect, after accepting an appeal against efforts by the prosecutor’s office aimed at preventing him from assuming power.  News Five spoke with Minister of Foreign Affairs Eamon Courtenay who provided details of the brief visit.

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“When President-elect Arevalo was elected, he and Prime Minister [John Briceno] had a courtesy call shortly thereafter when prime minister congratulated him and he promised to visit Belize before he took office.  And so, this is in fulfillment of that promise.  It was, of course, not an official visit because he is not yet in office, and so the discussions were very informal.  He came accompanied by the foreign minister designate and an advisor.  We spoke about our bilateral relations and the need for us to restart things.  We spoke about trade and we spoke about migration, cooperation and drug smuggling, anti-drug smuggling, and he pledged that once he took office, he wished to reinvigorate the discussions and to move the agenda forward.  We had quite an involved discussion about Central America and SICA and some of the challenges that we have there and there was an exchange of views between himself and the prime minister on that.  And then of course we spoke about wider things in Latin America and the Caribbean and, you know, some of the things.  He assured prime minister that the constitutional court had ruled yesterday in Guatemala that he is to be sworn in as the president on the fourteenth of January.  So that was very good news.  So it was a very fruitful, very cordial and, I think, a very positive discussion.”