| Parliamentary Peace-making |
| Fri, May 20, 2016 |
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Earlier, we showed you how the council of churches will try its own kind of ecclesiastical diplomacy, well, speaker of the House Mike Peyrefitte was in Nicaragua earlier this week to try his hand at Parliamentary peace-making. Peyrefitte is the Vice President of "FOPREL", the Forum of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments of Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean Basin, while the speaker of the Guatemalan Congress, Mario Taracena Diaz-Sol is the President. They met yesterday at the Congress Conference Room in Managua, Nicaragua along with Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the parliaments of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica.
According to a press release from the National Assembly Peyrefitte briefed the Speakers about Belize's perspective on the recent shooting death of a Guatemalan child in the Chiquibul Reserve.
But, it wasn't just talk, at the end of the one-day meeting a first of its kind agreement was signed between the National Assembly of Belize and the Congress of Guatemala quote,
"To invite Guatemala and Belize to promote and facilitate the solution to all disagreements involving them through dialogue and parliamentary diplomacy...
(1) For FOPREL to encourage Guatemala and Belize to support the ongoing processes between these two countries under the auspices of the OAS;
(2) FOPREL will encourage the Congress of Guatemala to promptly consider the ratification of the protocol signed between Belize and Guatemala in May 2015, to amend the Special Agreement signed in 2008.
That document has languished in the Guatemalan parliament. We note that the Guatemalan Congress recently passed a travel advisory warning citizens not to travel to Belize - alleging human rights violations by the BDF.
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