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His foreign policy has been harshly criticized as being too appeasing and in this particular instance, his comments following the murder of Danny Conorquie, were used by his opponents as yet another example of his attempts to pacify Guatemala. He told us today that what they may not know is that Belize's relationship with Guatemala is the best it has been in years, and they've stopped being openly hostile. Here's how he explained it:

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"As a foreign minister I have the responsibility not only to Belize and the government of Belize and the people of Belize - that's where I have my first responsibility, but we are now part of an interconnected world and so I've got to think in terms of the impact of what I say on the world at large. Guatemala is not only our neighbor, but they are also a very powerful neighbor and all their relationship with us as far as I am aware since I have become foreign minister - they are always been polite and they have always try to be proper. Dealing at the foreign minister's level I think it is only right that I take the same position too, so I am not going to say anything that is not necessary to be said and that can caused a bad situation to be even worse. That is not my role and I don't knee jerk. When it comes to any incident I always give careful thought to it and I try to find proper way to deal with it. From the time I took the job, the criticism has always been that I have been too soft with the Guatemalans and I have been consolatory. The truth is though that never before in the history of our country have we develop to this point where we have now reached since we took office in 2008. The Guatemalans has resolutely refused before 2008 to go to the ICJ. Before then they use to amassed troops on our border, they use to threaten violence. No threat of violence have ever been made by the government of Guatemala since then and up to this point in time all they are saying to us is that they want to solve it at the ICJ."

And while, at the Diplomatic level, Belize and Guatemala are friendly, things aren't so pleasant all around. A Guatemalan Television station called Guatevision, has posted that viral video of the shooting of Danny Conorquie on its Facebook page - and it has attracted many indifferent comments - suggesting that it's not such a big deal since the Belizean military has killed several Guatemalans encroaching on Belizean territory.