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That's not the kind of thing casually said in public - and today, Belizean Foreign Minister Elrington discussed the implications of this extraordinary pronouncement by President Perez Molina:

Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I was certainly surprised that he would have been talking about it in the press. We have been discussing with his foreign minister, and we thought that we would have kept it at the level where, we would make any public announcement until after we have met with the people at the OAS,. So that was a surprise to me. I get the sense that he is getting pressured in his own country, and he has to speak to his constituencies, so that they can allay any fears that they may have and I think that might be one of the reasons why he would have been moved to do that."

Jules Vasquez "Outwardly, it's such an act of ill faith - poor faith, bad faith, that you should announce something via a press release - speaking with members of the press and not informed your partners in this."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"We think it's unfortunate that pronouncement was made to the press by the president, but they had their own constraints. They have their own considerations, and I don't think it is helpful for us to make any kind of negative comment on what they have done. They are a sovereign nation just like us, and we have got to understand that they may well have genuine problems. We have to hope that they will either hold the course with us, or we will then in fact have to make a determination that we would probably just want to continue on our own. But I don't think we can make a definitive position at this point in time, until we are hear what they're saying in detail, until we get the response from the OAS, and then we come back, put it to our cabinet, and also the Opposition because their very much a part of it.

Reporter
"From their media reports, they want us to change our referendum act to make it easier, I guess; however, what's the official position from the Guatemalan Government as to why they want to postpone or delay the referendum?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"When we meet with the foreign minister, there were no suggestions from him that they wanted us to change our referendum act. I don't think that was raise at all."

Jules Vasquez
"But he is mentioning in his statement that Belize has the 60% and threshold, as if that is the issue, and you know there's the old saying that, when a baby wants to cry you just have to watch it."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"Yes, we had discussed the question of the threshold with the Guatemalan foreign Minister when we were in Chile, and we had gotten the indication from them that they were quite content with that. And as I said, when the foreign minister came here, the last time he was here like 3 weeks ago, again he did not raise the issue as the matter that was of concern to them. My understanding of his concern at that time, and their concern was that, given the time constraint they did not think that they were I a position to ensure the yes vote."

Jules Vasquez
"No one party can simply reverse out of disagreement unilaterally; It will be awful. It seems; looking at it from the outside, that they want an out, that they want somebody to save them. They want either the government - your government or the OAS or somebody to say, 'Yes, your right. let's move up away from October 6, 2013. Are we so inclined to give them that out?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I certainly would not be inclined to acquiesce to their proposal for an adjournment at all, and I don't think that would be the position of our delegation."

Reporter
"What if Belize wants to maintain th October 6th referendum, and Guatemala doesn't, can it - what impact that that imply?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I personally think that we could proceed to have our referendum on the 6th of October, because really and truly the final analysis, what we want is to get the indication from the Belizean people as to how they want to have it resolved. They can do theirs later on."

Jules Vasquez
"I know the timing of the referendum was meant to coincide more or less with the election cycle in both countries. You'd have governments which are relatively new, and have some capitals to burn for extremists who may wish to create ruction. However with that being established, would you agree that if we postpone until 2014, or if one side postpones till 2014, in fact they will only lose momentum and critical mass and make it likely that they'll never have a referendum."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"Yeah, another - you're quite right, Jules. The other consideration that has always, had to be borne in mind is that, both countries this issue tends to be used as a political football. So, the most ideal time for having the referendum, is not a time when you have an election imminent. It's best to have it when there's no elections around so that politicians are not scared to act how they really think about it, to act in accordance with their conscience. Putting it off for another time, now you're getting nearer to election time, it brings on additional concerns, fears, pressures and worries, and it certainly would not be in our best interest. We don't believe that that would be in our best interest."