7 News Belize

Elrington: Guats “Shot” The Messenger
posted (February 15, 2018)

But it’s moving forward without Magdalena Talamàs. She was the coordinator of the OAS Adjacency Zone office - and as we first reported on January 16th, she’s been removed from that post at the insistence of the Guatemalans.  They were firmly opposed to her holding that office because she presented the investigative report on the April 2016 incident in the Cebada area of the Chiquibul.  That report found that the BDF had no blame or wrongdoing in the death of a 13 year old Guatemalan who was encroaching in Belizean territory - along with his father.  

The Guatemalans rejected that conclusion, the report, and the person who presented it - leading to one and a half years of icy relations with the OAS.  And that’s why she was removed - Elrington explains: 

Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Belize
"When the truth was disclosed to them, when the report of the commission was made public they were very peeved by that and they decided to attack the messenger not the message. Unfortunately Magdalena Tamalas was in fact the messenger. Many times the messenger gets shot and this one case where she was in fact shot. They refuse to want to have to do anything with her and was not as cooperative with the OAS as we would have liked and that is necessary given the delicate task they have to undertake. We can't afford to have the Guatemalans not cooperating fully with the OAS and the Office of the OAS and they saw Magdalena as an obstacle to that so she had to be sacrificed."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize