7 News Belize

Guatemala Foreign Minister To OAS
posted (April 10, 2013)
The Guatemalan foreign minister Fernando Carrera was in Washington DC today to meet with the OAS Permanent Council. Their business was the discussion of the draft Declaration of the 43rd OAS General Assembly, to be held in the city of Antigua, Guatemala between June 4 and 6, 2013. The subject of that meeting will be: "Toward a Comprehensive Anti-Drug Policy in the Americas." At this time, there is no report on whether he had any side meeting with the OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza on the Belize-Guatemala issue.

In other news from Guatemala, multiple newspapers in that country report that the Guatemalan government has acquired 6 new Brazilian made aircraft at a cost of 133 million US dollars. The planes will be used reportedly to stem deforestation, illegal occupation and other illegal activities in an area called the Maya Biosphere, which covers more than eight thousand square miles in the Peten region. A large part of that the area borders Belize's Chiquibul Forest.

This comes 3 months after 30 Guatemalan agents who are part of a Special Unit of the Police were stationed in the Peten, along its border with Belize to protect Guatemala's natural resources from incursions and deforestation.

The Prensa Libre adds that these aircraft are called Super Tucan, which are designed for light attack missions, counter-insurgency, close aerial support, reconnaissance, as well as pilot training. They are outfitted with two machine guns with 2 hundred rounds each on the wings.

The aircraft will be delivered at the rate of two per year starting in 2014.

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