And on the subject of Belize – Guatemala relations, Elrington updated us on a Mixed Commission meeting held last Friday. That high-level session was attended by both Foreign Ministers, Elrington and Carlos Raul Morales, and featured the usual array of topics on the way to establishing closer ties between the countries. Wilfred Elrington, Minister […]
Back in July of 2015, Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington visited Mexico in an official capacity where he signed on to nine bilateral agreements with his Mexican counterparts. While functional cooperation has been taking place with our northern neighbor for decades, the agreements put in place a legal framework for the execution of a number […]
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington recently attended the thirty-seventh meeting of the Community Council of Ministers in Georgetown, Guyana. Plans for the upcoming gathering of regional heads of state, to be held in Belize in February, were being discussed. As of the first of January, Prime Minister Dean Barrow assumed pro tem chairmanship of the Caribbean […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow is in Guatemala City where he attended the inauguration of President Jimmy Morales on Thursday and returns to the country on Sunday. In his thirty-four minute lofty speech, Morales referred briefly, for about fifteen seconds, on relations with Belize. He said, “We want to advance in the resolution of the territorial, maritime […]
The territorial claim to Belize is a matter of priority on the national agenda of successive governments. Last year a number of incidents occurred at the Sarstoon River in the south in which the Guatemalan military was seen to be behaving aggressive against the Belize Territorial Volunteers as well as the Belize Defense Force well […]
At a ceremony this afternoon which was delayed by two hours, Jimmy Morales became the new president of Guatemala. Before president Morales took the oath, the outgoing president Alejandro Maldonado delivered his parting shots saying he agreed to step into the presidency because it was his duty to so do. Maldonado took office when the […]
In our coverage in Guatemala, we interviewed Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales on Wednesday. We asked him about the Cuban migration crisis which has caused a rift in the Central American region. A request by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis to allow the passage of eight thousand Cuban refugees through Belize and Guatemala was […]
According to Foreign Minister Morales, specific guarantees should first be put in place before allowing the transit of Cuban migrants through Central America, en route to the United States. Carlos Raul Morales, Foreign Minister, Guatemala “We request two issues. We request two guarantees. The first one is that Mexico will accept these Cubans because […]
In less than twenty-four hours, Jimmy Morales will assume office as the new president of Guatemala. It’s an important event for Belize because of that country’s unfounded territorial claim to the country. Tonight, we begin our coverage of that event with a one-on-one interview by Marleni Cuellar with the Foreign Minister of Guatemala, Carlos Raul […]
This Thursday, a new president will be sworn into office in Guatemala and News Five will be there to bring you coverage of the event in both our newscasts as well as on Open Your Eyes beginning on Wednesday’s newscast. The ex-comedian Jimmy Morales will take the oath in the presence of world leaders, including […]
Tertiary level students interested in furthering their academic pursuits abroad are being encouraged to apply for a scholarship opportunity in Taiwan. The Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has announced that there are a total of thirty-one full scholarships available for 2016 for the TaiwanICDF program, as well as the Taiwan MOFA program. Since […]
There is tentatively good news for Cuban migrants stuck in Costa Rica following a SICA meeting held in Guatemala on Monday. According to reports, an agreement has been reached for an undisclosed number of Cubans to be flown out of Costa Rica to El Salvador, and bussed from there to Mexico, and then on to […]
Belize has appointed a new Ambassador to Cuba. Annie Burns Martinez, presented credentials to the government ofCubaat the Palacio de la Revolucion inHavanaaccrediting her as ambassador toCuba. Vice President and Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys Bejerano Portela and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelino Medina González received Burns at the formal ceremony. There […]
As many as six thousand Cubans are stuck in Costa Rica since November, unable to make their way to the United States. Once they set foot on American soil they would be granted residency under the wet foot dry foot policy of the United States. But to date Belize, Nicaragua and Guatemala have denied them […]
According to Elrington, there has been some indication that Mexico would be prepared to facilitate the passage of the Cubans, but nothing in writing. Belize is not prepared to budge without that written undertaking. In the meantime, Elrington says that Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis will just have to understand that this is the […]
There is now some action by Mexico. This Tuesday, technical teams will be meeting in Mexico City, to discuss a way forward for the Cuban crisis. The meeting was set for El Salvador but was moved to Mexico, which is seen as a key player in a solution to the crisis. One proposal from the […]
On Tuesday Cabinet made the decision to hold off on approving the transit of Cubans stuck in Costa Rica through Belize. An official release claimed that G.O.B. is willing to join a regional discussion to find a resolution to the matter, but pending that is not inclined to make a unilateral decision to allow the […]
While the Guatemalans seem to have had a change of heart in respect of the erection of an F.O.B. on the Belizean side of the Sarstoon River, its government, via a recent diplomatic note, has made a rather absurd request. It is essentially asking that Guatemalan fishermen who continually exploit marine resources in the area […]
Costa Rican and Belizean officials are in negotiations over the fate of thousands of Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica for weeks where they were detained as they made their way to the United States through Central America and Mexico. Their journey took them first to Ecuador, then on to Colombia, Panama then Costa Rica. […]
News Five has extensive coverage tonight of the very under the radar visit of Guatemalan President Elect Jimmy Morales. Morales is on a whirlwind round of country visits prior to his official inauguration, but there was no official announcement of his trip to Belize and media reports in Guatemala said that he wasn’t coming to […]
Against that backdrop of little protest and big guns, Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Guatemalan President-Elect Jimmy Morales met for about thirty minutes, for discussions and the usual photo op. The media stationed outside got to see Morales for about three seconds total, between arrival and departure, and the Prime Minister departed without an interview. […]
COLA President Geovanni Brackett, one of five persons who protested on Coney Drive, was released at around midday from the Queen Street Police Station, without being charged. He told News Five that he feels that he was targeted by the GSU, but that is just the price that any activist must be prepared to pay. […]
On Tuesday, we reported that Guatemalan President Elect, Jimmy Morales has embarked on a traditional tour of Central America and Mexico, which is part of the protocol by incoming presidents of the region. While he takes office in less than two months, on January fourteenth 2016, Morales began his tour in Honduras and met privately […]
Following the news of the amazing catch and release of prize fish and fugitive millionaire David Nanes, Belize certainly got a black eye on the international scene. And tonight there is another, after the US issued sanctions on a company registered in Belize and believed to be doing business with the Islamic State of Iraq […]
Jimmy Morales has embarked on a traditional tour of Central America and Mexico undertaken by incoming presidents of the region. In the case of Morales, who takes office in January fourteenth 2016, his first leg took him to Honduras to privately meet with President Juan Orlando Gutierrez. Custom issues as well as matters of security, […]
