While Guatemala is holding a referendum in April, a date for when Belizeans will go to the polls to decide on whether or not the matter of the age-old territorial dispute with Guatemala, is yet to be finalized. That announcement is expected to be made in the latter part of the year, following the March […]
For some time there has been talk that the country’s former chief negotiator Assad Shoman would be returning to work for the Government on the process taking the Guatemalan claim to the I.C.J. With tremendous experience as it relates to the dispute, Shoman has been meeting with government officials but the terms of his employment […]
Funding for the OAS’ office at the Adjacency Zone remains an area of concern for Belize and Guatemala, as efforts are continuous in finding monies to keep its doors open. At present, there is enough to hold over for some months, however, foreign ministers for both countries will need to seek financial aid from the […]
Mexico was one of the thirteen countries at Wednesday’s meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States which supported Belize and Guatemala during their appearance there. Both Foreign Ministers Wilfred Elrington and Sandra Jovel Polanco tried to rally international support for the upcoming referenda on resolving the dispute at the International Court […]
Mexico continues to count the cost of the ongoing drug war in which thousands have been killed over the years. While the annual murder rate is much smaller than Belize, the sheer numbers are larger although mostly concentrated in the north and center of the country. But more recently there has been unruly behavior at […]
Mexicans are not alone in engaging in criminality. Witness Robert Gentle, who was recently caught driving a Lincoln Navigator over the border in which cocaine was found. He tried to make a run for it and Mexican police cut his legs from under him, shooting out his tires and forcing the vehicle to crash into […]
During U.S. President Donald Trump’s live televised State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, he intimated that American foreign assistance should always serve American interests and go to its friends and not enemies. The comments came in the wake of more than one hundred countries banding against the U.S.’s decision to recognize […]
Back from his end-of-year working visit to his homeland to meet with counterparts in the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat, Ambassador of Mexico to Belize, Carlos Quesnel Melendez, hosted the press at the Institute of Mexico in Belize City, to review the work of last year and the projects for 2018. February second marks three years in […]
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s whirlwind visit to Belize for the Mexico-CARICOM summit was a highlight of the local embassy’s year, and planning has begun for a reciprocal visit, as well as the Bi-National Commission reuniting. A topic that will certainly be on the minds of the politicians and diplomats is the United States’ position on […]
There is an important notice tonight for our viewers of Mexican heritage. In five months voters will go to the polls there to elect a President and members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senators. Because Mexico’s constitution sets a single six-year, non-renewable term for the presidency, incumbent Enrique Peña Nieto cannot run for re-election. […]
The thirty-three members of the Organization of American States’ Permanent Council – Cuba and Venezuela aside – met in session in Washington this morning to hear from the Belizean and Guatemalan foreign affairs ministers on the status of the Belize-Guatemala claim as it reaches flashpoint. The O.A.S. has established a Peace Fund to regulate activities […]
On Tuesday, we told you about Belizean Denea Joseph who has been living in the U.S. for seventeen years, but is one of one point eight million illegal immigrants who were taken to the U.S.A. as children and remain protected under its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Trump Administration says it will wind […]
U.S. President Donald Trump will give his first State of the Union address tonight in Washington. Marking the first year of his presidency, he will deliver the speech at the White House which will highlight issues related to the U.S. economy, national security and immigration, among others. And if you’ve been following the international news, […]
While Denea Joseph will sit tonight at the State of the Union, Foreign Minister Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington is also in Washington, D.C., but for a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States to be held on Wednesday morning. Also headed there is Guatemalan counterpart Sandra Jovel Polanco, and the two are […]
On Friday the Minister of Defence John Saldivar addressed an unexpected visit to Belize from members of the Guatemalan Armed Forces who were said to be asking about an earlier engagement between Belizean police and a Guatemalan reporter. While there are few such encounters at the western border, it is much closer quarters in the […]
There have been developments in respect of relations with Guatemala. Special Representative of the O.A.S. Secretary General for Belize-Guatemala Affairs, Magdalena Talamas, has been reassigned from her post at the Adjacency Zone, following a protest by the Guatemalan government demanding her removal. President Jimmy Morales, as well as former Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales, complained […]
Still on Guatemala…a journalist Rigoberto Escobar Lopez who claims he was assaulted on Tuesday at the adjacency zone at the western border is taking his case to the Guatemalan Human Rights Office. Escobar told the Guatemalan media that he is pressing ahead with his complaint. The reporter says in an interview that he has been […]
Errol Elrington, he is the sibling of Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington who fled to Belize in 2014 as a fugitive of the United States. The doctor is being sought by authorities in respect of his alleged role in defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of almost half a million U.S. dollars. He absconded back to his home […]
On the heels of a vote at the United Nation’s by Belize against the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem, Belize is among three countries removed from the temporary work visa program. Along with Haiti and Samoa, effective today, Belizeans will no longer be able to acquire H-Two-A and H-Two-B non-immigrant work visas. […]
On Tuesday night at the western border crossing in Benque Viejo, a fifty-second surveillance footage from inside the Customs area of the Belize offices, captures three Guatemalan soldiers dressed in their military fatigues, similar to that of the Kaibiles, enter Belizean territory from the Guatemalan side. The video, courtesy of Belize Breaking News, shows the […]
As we said, Escobar Lopez is a reporter attached to Prensa Libre and Guatevision in Peten, Flores. He claims he was assaulted by a police officer after being spotted at the western border taking pictures of the customs and immigration offices. According to the journalist, he was going about his business documenting the work of […]
U.S. President Donald Trump last week created a firestorm when he made disparaging remarks about small and developing nations and countries such as Haiti, El Salvador and others in Africa as ‘shithole countries. If anything, the inflammatory statement served to raise the ire of countries around the world, including those in CARICOM that have condemned […]
Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington has signed the documents relating to a request for extradition for attorney Andrew Bennett from the U.S. State Department. But closer to home, a relative of his remains on the run from U.S. authorities. Doctor Errol Elrington, brother to Wilfred and Hubert Elrington, is listed among the top ten […]
Following last week’s encounter between a team of Belizean youth basketballers and members of the Guatemalan Armed Forces, in which the latter tried but failed to stop them circling Sarstoon Island, it appears the Guatemalan army is up to its old tricks again. The GAF have made a habit of following any Belizean craft or […]
The Government of Belize is still in no apparent hurry to amend the 1992 Maritime Areas Act as called for by the Opposition, which introduced it when they were in government. To facilitate a potential settlement of the Guatemalan claim, the Act proposed to set aside territorial waters from Ranguana Caye to the Sarstoon River […]
