Guatemala’s Jimmy Morales Wants Peace with Belize

Jimmy Morales

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales arrived in the country on Thursday evening via the P.G.I.A., in a private jet and departed today. He was here on an official visit for the fifty-second SICA Summit which we will tell you about later in this newscast.  But first, we go to the very short interview President Morales afforded the media. As you may know, this is Morales’s second visit to Belize. The first time he arrived was by road in 2015, after having won the presidential elections in his country. His arrival at the Prime Minister’s office on Coney Drive was marked with controversy as well-known activists and protestors attempted to block the president’s convoy of vehicles. In the margins of the SICA summit, Morales made a short statement in Spanish. The topic was the I.C.J. referendum and Morales answered the question posed by News Five’s Hipolito Novelo on what he thinks might happen if Belizeans vote ‘no’ on April tenth in respect of taking the territorial dispute to the international court.

Hipolito Novelo [Translated]

“In your point of view, what would happen if the Belizean population voted NO in its referendum next year?”

Jimmy Morales, President of Guatemala [Translated]

“That has not happened. I think what we have to point out is that things happen and I believe that Guatemala, Belize want peace, we want to strengthen. We have very good treaties that we have signed. For example children from Guatemala who come to study in Belize, university students from Belize who are going to study in Guatemala. That shows that we all want to improve. So we always want the best for Belize. What is good for Belize is good for Guatemala. That’s how good we communicate. We see a great opportunity and the great opportunity is that we can find the solution to a difference we have had for more than two hundred years. If God helps us I believe we will be able to see a peaceful future and strengthen all our relationships. That is, we believe that we are on the right path and, by God means, of taking the right steps. God bless you. It was a pleasure to greet you.”