Briceño Says Belize Ambassador to Guatemala Was Not Recalled

Following his return from the United Nations, Prime Minister John Briceño also addressed the return of Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala, José Alpuche. Speaking to reporters at the Philip Goldson International Airport, Briceño clarified that the ambassador has not been recalled from his post. He said Alpuche was asked to return for a meeting as Belize continues to address the dispute over the reported entry of a Guatemalan aircraft into Belizean airspace.  In this exchange, courtesy of X TV, the Prime Minister explains the distinction.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “That’s what our countries do when something happened in another country you’re bring in your ambassador to be able to have a discussion to understand what’s going on from the other side. Every country do that. We need to allow us to be able to have a discussion before we make that decision. But you recall that you come to Belize and to have a discussion and then we decided whether you go back to following day or one month or don’t go back at all. It is something to be decided. But at the same time, it is important that we always remain connected with Guatemalan government. We are neighbors. That’s not going to change. We believe that the ICJ, we have every confidence that we are going to win that case. So we have to maintain good relationships with Guatemala. I will be meeting with the foreign minister and also the National Security Council sometime this week. And then there are different things that we want to to do one is I would recommend that we call in the diplomatic, if the foreign minister has done it as yet, to call in the ambassador from Guatemala in Belize for an explanation as to what’s going on. And also I would recommend if the foreign minister has. not done it, is to recall our ambassador to come in and for us to be able to have a deep discussion as to what’s going on. What has been done is unacceptable. And as I said in the in my speech  in the United Nations Assembly that it seems that at least the Guatemala military is trying to play some kind of games now that we’re going to the ICJ, trying to try to destabilize this process. And we would not allow that to happen. Of course, we’ll be talking to the friends of Belize, the Americans to start with, we were going to talk with the Americans and the British and the Canadians, the OAS, with everybody, for them to understand that what Guatemala has done is unacceptable and that this is not how democratically elected countries behave or how good neighbors behave.”

José Alpuche has been Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala since May 2021./