And, from that regional meeting, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet - as well as both Chambers of the House prepare for a major diplomatic event on Sunday. That's when Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel will arrive in Belize for an official visit. Reports tell us he is traveling with a large contingent of over 50 persons.
Very little is known about the itinerary, but we know he will be whisked from a formal greeting at the airport at 10:00 am to a Joint sitting of the National Assembly which will be held at the Government House in Belize City at noon on Sunday.
The press office says he and Prime Minister Briceño will sign two agreements.
The press asked the PM more about it today:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We are quite excited to have the president of Cuba to visit Belize. As you know Belize has had a very close relationship with Cuba. Cuba, through Fidel Castro in the 70s was among one of the first countries that felt that they need to support Belize's quest for independence, he worked very closely with George Price and it is through his efforts and Omar Torrijos from Panama that we managed to break that Latin American grip with support for Guatemala. So it is something that you can never forget and we will always be grateful. We have the Cuban brigade, the scholarships, I mean there is so much that we are very thankful to Cuba, so that the president for the first time, a Cuban president coming to Belize. Its indeed a big thing. For us it's very exciting. It's unfortunate that he could only be here for a short while, but we will be having different discussions with them. Certainly, immigration is one of them, the issue of education, the issue of health - all of these matters are very important to both countries and we do plan to discuss some of these items."
"We plan to have a MOU at the end of discussion and then we will have a joint meeting of the parliaments, both the senate and the national assembly. So that the president can address this."
