Foreign Ministers of Belize and Guatemala headed to O.A.S.

Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington

The October referendum has been called off; first by Guatemala on the basis that they wanted Belize to amend the Referendum Act to change the sixty percent voter turnout to a simple majority and also because they were not prepared to spend millions of dollars on a process which likely would not have yielded a yes vote. Last week, the Prime Minister also said that Belize would not go at it alone. But there is still the case that Guatemala has not formally told Belize that it is calling the referendum off.  That is likely to be formalized at a meeting in Washington between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington and his counterpart, Fernando Carreras, along with the O.A.S. Secretary General Miguel Angel Insulza.  That meeting takes place on Wednesday at the O.A.S. There are other issues such as the Special Agreement signed in 2008 which is considered to still be valid and the confidence building measures in the Adjacency Zone, which are likely to come up for discussion. At Wednesday’s meeting, the opposition is being represented by former P.U.P. leader, John Briceno.