And while Elrington hopes for the best in terms of the referendum process - what about the successor for the Guatemalan Foreign Minister's post? Elrington's critics would say that for him, a Foreign Minister couldn't get any better than Carlos Raul. Elrington was often criticized for being too soft with the hawkish and occasionally insulting foreign Minister Morales. Today he confirmed that he did like Minister Morales - even when he wasn't answering Elrington's calls - but Elrington says, he should've listened to his boss:..
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"But the report is that he was instructed by the President to expel the head of CICG, the Colombian Ivan Velasquez, and when he refused to expel, he was then summarily dismissed."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Dismissed! Well, you know it is always dangerous not to obey the instructions of your boss, Jules! And if he did not obey the instructions of his boss, I imagine his boss would have taken that kind of step. That is the danger when you are minister, you are very expendable, you cannot afford to get your prime minister or your president upset."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"You have many times and much to the ire of the Belizean citizenry, you have called him your friend, how do you feel now that he is quite suddenly departed the post."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I've had a fairly good relationship with almost all the Guatemalan foreign ministers that I worked with."
"I'm hoping and praying that in fact we'll be able to have this same kind of relationship with whoever succeeds Carlos Raul Morales. Yes, he was very helpful to us. As a matter of fact whenever we had any kind of difficulties, I would be able to call him wherever he was in the world, and he would be able to call me when we have border disputes and the like. It is important that you have people who can understand what the situation is and would seek to calm the fears of both nations. And he did that for a long time, and I'm very grateful to him for what he did. But I understand the realities of politics and we've got to make sure that whoever succeeds him, we've got to engage that person in the same kind of good, cordial way that we engaged Carlos Raul... There are Belizeans who didn't like him. Belizean officials and diplomats who didn't like him at all. I didn't have any negative interactions with him. I mean, I understood he had a job to do, I had a job to do. And, he tried to do it in a very professionally."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"But you will concede that there was a time when you said you couldn't reach him, I think after the report came out, the OAS report came out. And might you also concede that he was a bit of a hawk on foreign affairs, especially as it concerns Belize?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I'm not sure I would characterize it in that light. And, aha, generally, we have been able to meet with them. If he has particular pressures in his country I can understand that he may refuse to take my phone call. And I'm sure that is done with you and other people."
"But I think we are very grateful for the kind of interaction we had with hyoid and the kind of close relationship we had developed. I thought it had conduced to keeping our country safer and reducing the problems we could have had with one another."
And while Belize-Guatemala relations are one thing, the domestic politics of Guatemala are quite another. And tonight, tensions in that country are somewhat easing after President Jimmy Morales showed signs of backing down on his rash decision to expel the head of CICIG. We'll keep following it.
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