He is the highest Italian government official to visit. The government announced today that Claudio Scajola, the Minister of Economic Development, was on a brief official visit. Scajola arrived this morning and met in Belize City with the PM Dean Barrow, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington and his counterpart, Minister Erwin Contreras. A declaration was released […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was in Guatemala last Friday for a summit of SICA presidents. Barrow and the Central American leaders met with United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. She was on her last stop of a regional tour and engaged the leaders on a discussion about the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel […]
The dust has still not settled over the Foreign Minister’s recent comments about artificial borders in the many twists of Belize’s number one foreign policy and national issue. But this week representatives from both Belize and Guatemala sat down to talk and it is becoming patently clear that the holding of a referendum and going […]
By the time the technocrats get through all the red tape, it’s going to be quite a while before the dispute reaches the ICJ, if it does. But in the meantime, the tension on the ground has not waited for diplomacy to find a way. Though Fred Martinez says that all Guatemalan settlements have been […]
The complaint from Guatemala about militarization of the border came shortly after the post was installed. The political spin by Guatemala was that Belize installed the outpost as a political strategy to demarcate the border long ahead of the ICJ resolution of the case. Martinez says that the response was that Belize has a sovereign […]
The gamma ray screening process which was implemented at Mexico’s border stopped Belizean buses from crossing the border in January. There was a public outcry as visitors were forced to walk across the Friendship Bridge to Subtiniente Lopez and then use Mexican transportation. According to Marcelino Miranda, press officer for the Mexican Embassy in Belize, […]
Droves of Belizeans cross the border to shop or to get away, far more than the number of Mexicans that come to Belize. The trade imbalance has been discussed for many years and in many offices, and this morning the private sector made headway. The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry met with its counterparts […]
Mexico’s Ambassador to Belize Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno attended the joint chamber discussion. Lopez-Moreno addressed the ongoing dispute that has locked out Belizean buses from crossing the border on the weekend, the time when most Belizeans would go shopping. The blockade does not only affect the income of the bus owners but it also raises the […]
Another issue that was on the minds of the protestors was the Foreign Minister’s ‘artificial border’ comment made to an Organization of American States reporter in mid December last year. Though Wilfred Elrington has come under plenty fire and has gone to lengths to define and explain what he meant, many feel that he needs […]
And in the north, Belizeans who headed to Mexico in public transportation either for weekend getaways or the end of month shopping, experienced delays at the border over the weekend. The local buses that arrived at the Mexican border before nine in the morning on Saturday could not cross over because of a procedure adopted […]
Yolanda Schakron says that any cover up she unravels on the police will not bring back her nephew, but says she doing it for other Belizeans who don’t have the resources to do it themselves. And she is now calling on them to join her fight. Yolanda Schakron, Aunt of Christopher Galvez “I di ask […]
While the British Forces do their best to secure their weapons cache in Belize, the shockwaves from a verbal explosion by Foreign Minister Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington while at the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington, are still agitating the public. Members of the opposition and others have called on the Prime Minister to remove […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow said today that his Foreign Minister is safe at home and that he did not intend to remove Wilfred Elrington from Cabinet for his use of the word artificial in describing the established borders between Belize and Guatemala. But the Prime Minister conceded that Elrington should have perhaps apologized for his […]
Still on the issue of the border dispute, Senator and former Foreign Minister, Eamon Courtenay, on Tuesday outlined a best case scenario of seven years before the Belize/Guatemala dispute would see the light of day at the International Court of Justice. That timeframe was based on upcoming election cycles in both Belize and Guatemala, which […]
Another hot button issue which has provoked the ire of the public was the decision to grant visa waivers to Israeli nationals. Israel is known is to be a top supplier of arms to Guatemala which is claiming as much as fifty percent of Belizean territory so that move set off a flurry of condemnation. […]
The term artificial was used in December by Foreign Minister Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington to describe our borders with Guatemala. The public condemnation was fierce and the minister turned to the Webster dictionary to explain himself away. But that did not quell the outrage, in particular since there has been no word yet from Prime Minister […]
Earlier in the newscast, Senator Eamon Courtenay, was critical about the use of the word artificial to describe the borders with Guatemala. When he appeared this morning on Open Your Eyes, Courtenay also said that the possibility of an early referendum to take the dispute to the International Court of Justice for resolution, could be […]
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Wilfred Elrington completed a one-day meeting with his Guatemalan counterpart, Haroldo Rodas Melgar in Washington, DC. last Wednesday. Agreement was reached on how to handle conflict between the two countries, but that was on the diplomatic front. Here at home, statements appearing on the OAS website, purportedly […]
Two persons who have rejected the Minister’s remarks are Senator Godwin Hulse and Patrick Rogers of the Vision Inspired by the People Movement. Senator Hulse said the Minister’s words could not even be interpreted as diplomatic language. Via Phone: Godwin Hulse, Senator “He made comments to the effect that our borders are artificial and that […]
And what does Elrington think of his critics? Well, he questioned where they were when the heads of agreement was on the table. Wilfred Elrington “You see all those people whoa re talking about being so nationalistic and talking about traitors? Ask them where they were in 1968 when the Webster proposals came about. You […]
The settlement of the Belize/Guatemala dispute may one day land before the International Court of Justice in the Hague, but that does not mean the end of incursions or conflict along the borders. And this is what prompted a meeting in Washington between the Foreign Ministers of Belize and Guatemala this past Wednesday. Both Wilfred […]
The afternoon session was lackluster when the second official gave testimony. Peter Allen, the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Health, was named in the audit report last week, for not adhering to contractual procedures and that he gave the nod to the purchase of medication which was cheaper but inferior. When Allen testified, he was […]
It’s the season for giving and six organizations are benefiting from a large supply of medical and educational material. The donation was made today by the U.S. armed forces to the Belize Defense Force for onward distribution to the Non Governmental Organizations. A representative from the U.S. Embassy was on hand to make the delivery. […]
Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria spent the weekend in Belize as a member of the board of OCEANA directors. Gaviria is known in Latin America as a conflict mediator and a defender of human rights. He served two terms as Secretary General of the Organization of American States and visited Belize in that capacity. Gaviria […]
The number of Israelies visiting the Jewel is few, but according to the Belmopan, a visa waiver will increase this number. This morning in the capital, Israeli Ambassador to Belize, Mattanya Cohen, and Belize’s Foreign Minister, Wilfred Elrington, signed an agreement that will no longer require travelers to acquire visas to enter the two countries. […]
