7 News Belize

Guatemalan Ambassador Returns, Quietly
posted (March 2, 2017)
Guatemala's ambassador to Belize, Manuel Roldan Barillas has today returned to his office in Belize City. This is after he was "recalled for consultations" 11 months ago in April 2016, when a Belizean joint patrol law enforcement team shot and killed 13 year old Guatemalan Julio Alvarado Ruano in the Chiquibul. A team of independent experts have since cleared the Belizean team of wrongdoing - a finding which the Guatemalan government rejected, and complained bitterly and publicly about.

But, while Belize - Guatemala relations remain fractured ever since that report was published, the quiet return of the Ambassador suggests some normalization of otherwise tense relations, if little else. We called the embassy and asked to speak to him today but the secretary told us that he was busy and would be busy.

And while the Guatemalans are sending one signal with his return, we are told that that in private talks they are calling for a reopening of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Julio Reynosa - which the government of the Belize is likely to oppose.

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