But there's no time to change locks at the ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For that Ministry it's full speed ahead and Lisa Shoman will take it over at a critical juncture. Outgoing Minister Eamon Courtenay says he's not indispensable but the break in continuity makes it no small feat to take over the office.
Jules Vasquez,
Does this sudden removal and in such - as you described it - in such an inelegant way, how does that square with Belize's foreign affairs position which is so critical as the country is trying to get some money from Taiwan and is also, like so many other Central American nations, hedging that line between Red China and Taiwan?
Hon. Eamon Courtenay, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Jules first of all I want to make it clear that nobody and certainly I am not indispensable and a decision whether I am in or out of Cabinet is one that will be made for a variety of reasons. What I will say is this, and I believe this, once again as I said in 2004, this is a very very very critical juncture for Belize. Not only in foreign affairs but also in foreign trade.
The question of the relationship with Taiwan as you point to hangs in the balance and we have to negotiate for an extremely long time using every trick in the book to get my colleagues to come around to a position. That matter is unresolved. We have the summit of SICA, we have a visit by the Mexican President all this month. We have the conference on the Caribbean which will be a summit with the President of the United States, Condoleeza Rice, which I coincidentally was to co-chair with her as Chairman of the CARICOM Foreign Ministers, now I take it now Lisa will have to do. but these are all things that we have been working on for months and years and we have a lot of issues, a lot of very delicate issues.
I cite all of those examples on the foreign affairs side simply to say that Lisa will be coming in at a particularly difficult and challenging time. The learning curve will be steep. Fortunately for her she has some experience as an ambassador but I think an Ambassador is one thing, ministerial decisions are another where decisions fall to you and you have to take them so it is going to be challenging for her.
These are not issues that you can just come in and deal within a few weeks.
It requires a lot of hours of hard work and experience. My point is very simple, as I said in 2004, it is unfortunate that this has come to pass because at this time, I believe we need the experience and the expertise and we have an excellent team in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a fantastic team in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and I can only hope that they will be there and Lisa will be equal to the task."
Shoman was not at Cabinet today as the new leaner group met in Belmopan. These rare images of a Cabinet meeting from the Press Office show the Cabinet without Courtenay, Briceno, Espat or Hyde. Not as impressive a lineup but we're sure there'll be far fewer ideological battles across the table.
