Belize is setting up a major diplomatic coup that it hopes will play out next month at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis. A major piece of Belize's play came into place today when the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning flew to Belize on a private charter for a one hour power meeting. Manning was here as the current Chairman of CARICOM and he was accompanied by CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington.
They met with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay this afternoon at the Radisson. There, Belize's Prime Minister lobbied Manning and Carrington to invite CARICOM to support Venezuela in its candidacy for the non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
As we've reported, the candidacy for that seat has become a matter of high-stakes international diplomacy, as the United States is strongly backing Guatemala and urging its allies to do the same. And that's where Belize comes in. According to Prime Minister Said Musa, supporting Guatemala is an untenable proposition for Belize. And that's where Belize's and Venezuela's interests dovetail neatly. But the cleavage of positions is most displeasing to the United States who would rather not have the ascendant Venezuela share a seat at the Security Council. And according to Prime Minister Musa, that has a lot to do with why Belize has been blacklisted by the United States for human trafficking.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
"I don't believe it is a coincidence that these matters are coming up at this time. Belize's position on the Security Council issue is very clear. We have this problem in which Guatemala is claiming our country. I think for any government to expect us to lobby support for that country is really, it's asking the impossible of Belize and no government I think can respond to that in a favorable light."
Patrick Manning, CARICOM Chairman
"The candidates on the table are Venezuela and Guatemala and it's important that we hear the Belizean position on this matter and I think we are in a position to have a very useful discussion in caucus when this matter comes up at the Heads of Government Conference."
While Manning gave notional support in that guarded statement, privately, we are told by senior sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Manning and Carrington will urge CARICOM to give Belize, and by extension Venezuela, full support when it meets on July fourth in St. Kitts and Nevis. The United States is pursuing its own pro-Guatemala lobby in CARCIOM and has pointed out that Venezuela has a territorial dispute with a CARCIOM member, Guyana.
A noted point, but as we understand it, Guyana has indicated that it would not object to regional support of Belize's position. If Belize wins the CARICOM vote for Venezuela, there's still no assurance that Chavez's Bolivarian Republic will get the Security Council seat when it comes up for election in the United Nations at the end of the year but, to take it to its most cynical conclusion, it would at least be a fair payback for a US$25 million concessionary loan.
