Prime Minister John Briceno is on his way to Caracas, Venezuela tonight for a high level meeting with President Nicolas Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
The PM is accompanied by Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay, and a delegation of officials.
An official release says he's been invited by the Venezuelans and they will, quote, "hold high-level discussions on various bilateral initiatives and programs." The release volunteers that "the people and governments of Belize and Venezuela share a broad and enduring relationship which has included cooperation in multiple areas of mutual benefit."
We must note that one of these areas is the Petrocaribe program - for which Belize still owes Venezuela close to 500 million Belize dollars. That debt is still on the books, and if Belize can get it written down, it would significantly reduce the country's debt stock and the debt to GDP ratio. In the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela forgave that country's 70 million US dollar debt earlier this year, and in 2015, Jamaica bought back its Venezuelan debt for a 50% discount.
