Prime Minister at United Nations with Ban Ki-Moon

Ban Ki Moon

Prime Minister Dean Barrow met with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, on Monday.  Barrow updated the Secretary General on the territorial dispute; the most recent development being that Guatemala will not hold the October sixth referendum.  As the PM met with Ban Ki Moon, the O.A.S. Representative, Raul Lagos, was also meeting with the Foreign Ministry officials to officially inform them of Guatemala’s decision that it would not proceed to convene the referendum. Guatemala had communicated its decision to the O.A.S. last week.  Following Monday’s announcement, the Guatemalan Foreign Minister Fernando Carrera wrote to the Congress relaying his government’s decision.  The Supreme Electoral Tribunal will also be officially informed that the referendum is off the table and quite possibly off the radar. President Otto Perez Molina says the conditions are not favorable for Guatemala because of the sixty percent voter turnout requirement. Furthermore, Perez Molina told the press on Monday that at the beginning of this year, he had been told by PM Barrow that he would be pushing for a yes vote and that has not been forthcoming. There has been no reaction today as to what is next in the process from the Foreign Ministry because Minister Wilfred Elrington and C.E.O. Alexis Rosado left for the meeting of the Association of Caribbean States in Haiti where they will join the Prime Minister. There are questions as to whether or not the 2008 Special Agreement will be preserved or what is the future of the confidence building measures agreed to between Belize and Guatemala under the auspices of the OAS.  Noteworthy, is that in respect of the trip to New York, the newly minted head of the Debt Management Committee, Ambassador Mark Espat, accompanied the Prime Minister on that leg of the trip.