Home » Featured Foreign Affairs People & Places Regional / International
You are currently browsing entries filed in: Featured Foreign Affairs People & Places Regional / International
There is another high level visit coming up. Officials from Mexico are scheduled to arrive this coming Friday. The Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, and the Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation Agustín García-López Loaeza, will be here for a few hours. The purpose […]
Over the weekend, there was yet another confrontation in the Sarstoon River. Members of the Guatemalan Armed Forces aggressed a group of Guatemalan and Belizean journalists traveling with the Belize Territorial Volunteers. The group was stopped from going up the river, despite the avowal of Belizean authorities that our half of the Sarstoon is free […]
More details of an arrest made by Guatemalan soldiers in Belizean territory are emerging, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that they were not approached for assistance. The soldiers, as shown in amateur video, were taking away the alleged suspect, a Guatemalan, in the robbery of a Guatemalan moneychanger in Belize over the […]
This afternoon there was a closing ceremony for a three-day Treaty Body Capacity Building Program for state officials which began on Tuesday. Later this year, Belize is internationally obliged to submit reports on International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of […]
Participants received their certificates from C.E.O. in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pat Andrews, who stood in for Minister Wilfred Elrington. He told News Five that the government is taking seriously the process of making national reports and also keeping local stakeholders up to date. Pat Andrews, C.E.O., Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Execution, execution. […]
In foreign affairs news, there are sketchy details about an apparent incursion by Guatemalan soldiers into Belizean territory. The question tonight is what authority they had to act. In this case, the pretext was to arrest an alleged robber. Information to News Five is that a Guatemalan money changer was robbed of a large sum […]
Janet Olisa was one of three ambassadors who presented her credentials to Governor General Sir Colville Young on Monday in Belmopan. She is the appointed High Commissioner of Nigeria to Belize, but is officially based in Jamaica. Today, she briefed the local press on the development of the relationship between the two countries, particularly in […]
Also, part of Olisa’s duties will be to minister to the growing Nigerian community in Belize which ranges from nurses in the hospitals to sculptor Stephen Okeke. She told News Five that the Nigerian government is looking for opportunities to export human resources in any area that Belize desires, including education and even the judiciary. […]
In mid-January, a Guatemalan reporter with Prensa Libre, Rigoberto Escobar, entered into Belize from the western border and claimed he was confronted by the police within the adjacency zone also considered no man’s land. Escobar would go on to complain to the Guatemalan press about the incident going as far as to say that he […]
Canadian fugitive Jordan Bacchus was arrested for drug possession in Sudbury, Canada; he will also be charged for armed robbery and other crimes in Toronto recently. But will he be extradited to Belize? Bacchus is a person of interest in the May 2016 murder of Melvin Almendarez in San Pedro. Today, we asked Foreign Minister […]
Written on February 15, 2018 | Posted in
Crime,
Featured,
Foreign Affairs |
No comment
We reported last week that Guatemala has finally sent its Ambassador to Belize in the person of career diplomat Georges De La Roche Du Ronzet. His appointment comes almost two years after his predecessor, Manuel Estuardo Roldan Barillas, was abruptly recalled to that country in the wake of the shooting death of Julio Rene Alvarado […]
Written on February 15, 2018 | Posted in
Featured,
Foreign Affairs |
No comment
While there is a new Guatemalan ambassador, another is departing the Belize Foreign Ministry. Today, Elrington confirmed that Ambassador Stuart Leslie is no longer a part of the Referendum Unit of the Ministry and has opted to move on to do political work with the Leader of the Opposition. The unit has focused on the […]
At a recent special session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., convened to report on the Peace Fund, as many as thirteen nations expressed support for a resolution to the territorial claim. The foreign ministers of Belize and Guatemala, Wilfred Elrington and Sandra Jovel Polanco, brought the council […]
According to Elrington, the United Nations Development Programme, U.N.D.P., is also on board, providing funding to assist in the referendum process which is to take place after the a re-registration exercise. Elrington says all hands are on deck, including the L.G.B.T.I. community, specifically Caleb Orozco who has provided an advocacy proposal. Elrington says the campaign […]
The resolution of the territorial dispute has been the number one foreign policy issue for successive governments of Belize. The people, however, are yet to decide at a referendum on whether or not the claim will go before the International Court of Justice for resolution. Foreign Minister Elrington told the media today that it doesn’t […]
The government of Taiwan has made a significant contribution to assist in the fight against one of the worst problems facing the nation. A million dollars was handed over to the Minister of Home Affairs to be used to acquire both equipment and crime fighting enforcement technologies for the Police Department. These include items such […]
A new Guatemalan ambassador has taken up residence in Belize, almost two years after his predecessor Manuel Estuardo Roldan Barillas was abruptly recalled. Roldan returned to a new post as Guatemala’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs amid heightened tension between both countries, following the shooting death of Guatemalan teenager Julio Alvarado Ruano in the Chiquibul […]
As you heard earlier the P.U.P. is demanding a greater say in the education campaign on the Belize-Guatemala issue. But as to taking a formal position on the coming referendum on taking the dispute to the International Court of Justice, party leader John Briceño is less concerned. As he himself admits, the party is squarely […]
The Belize Defence Force and the Belize Coast Guard received more than eight hundred and fifty-thousand dollars in drug fighting equipment and training packages. The US Embassy handed over the donation gifted by the US Southern Command’s ‘Counter Narcotics Program Office.’ While the U.S. and Central America have cooperated on defense and security, there have […]
Guatemalans head to the polls on April fifteenth to decide on the following question: Do you agree that any legal claim by Guatemala against Belize on continental inland territories and any maritime areas corresponding to those territories be submitted to the International Court of Justice for final determination and that it determines the boundaries of […]
Is the matter of the age-old territorial dispute with Guatemala and a pending referendum to determine whether the unfounded claim should be taken before the International Court of Justice, being used as a political football? In the south, there are at least six Mayan communities that think so. They have raised concerns about house-to-house visits […]
Alcaldes, as well as traditional leaders, are being urged to rebuff any effort to politicize the territorial issue. Despite acknowledging the importance of the campaign, Pablo Mis notes that it is imperative that the process is to be conducted in a fair, objective and independent manner. Pablo Mis, Program Coordinator, MLA “Given the magnitude […]
The concerns of the Maya community were presented to Prime Minister Barrow in writing in October of last year. His response, according to MLA Program Coordinator, Pablo Mis, failed to address those fears. Pablo Mis, Program Coordinator, MLA “At the beginning of 2017, the newly elected seventy-eight alcaldes passed several resolutions. One of them […]
On the diplomatic front…Belize has been without a resident ambassador from Guatemala since Manuel Estuardo Roldan was recalled to his Ministry for consultations. Relations were strained following the shooting death of young Julio Rene Alvarado in the Chiquibul in April 2016. Guatemala is now proceeding with the appointment of career diplomat George de la Roche […]
Uruguayan lawyer and politician Manuel Washington Abdala has been personally selected by O.A.S. Secretary General Luis Almagro to succeed Magdalena Talamas at the organization’s office at the Adjacency Zone. Abdala was a national representative for the Colorado Party from 1995 to 2010, along with Jorge Batlle, the elected President of the Republic of Uruguay. Abdala’s […]
