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One Cabinet Minister who was not even in country for the convention or the Cabinet contention in the aftermath is Wilfred Elrington.  He was travelling for two weeks, shuttling form meeting to meeting – and when he came back home, he had a breezy disposition, more or less laughing off the entire flap over Roger Plett’s abduction.  You may remember Plett, he’s the Mennonite who was abducted in the Green Hills Area of Spanish Lookout two weeks ago allegedly by the Guatemalan military, in service of an NGO on that side of the border.  Even though Plett says he was tied up and his tractor destroyed, Elrington says it was all just a neighbourly gesture:…

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"They were fighting fire, the fire got away and the fire was moving from Belize into Guatemalan territory and the Mennonites had equipment to help to stop the fire and was invited by a Guatemalan NGO to assist to lend them the equipment to assist and they resisted and the Guatemalan NGO decide to take self-help and take it from them and decided to use it to clear off the area to make sure the fire would not go any further into Guatemala. When they had finished that they gave it back. So I think we have to start to understand that we are our brother's keeper in this kind of thing and we can't get offended by every action that is taken."

Jules Vasquez
"Even if it's acquisition of private property?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"If I borrow it; you see there is a difference you know. When you take something with the intention permanently to deprive the person then that's stealing but if I just borrow it from you and give it back to prevent my house or my country from being burnt down I don't think people would..."

Jules Vasquez
"That's a very benign.."

Reporter
"My understanding is that Guatemala military were in fact along with that NGO and we have seen pictures where that is the case."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"That is not the information that came to me really."

Reporter
"This report or a portion of it is what you're getting from your Guatemalan counterparts?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I got it from our people because they get it from; I don't know where they got it from but that's the information I got."