And moving onto other news, biggest story in last week's news cycle was the arraignment of Ambassador Alexis Rosado, Belize's most senior career diplomat. As we reported, he's now facing a charge of rape and other allegations of sex crimes relating to a complaint of child abuse.
Before these allegations emerged, Rosado held very senior posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including CEO, Belize's Ambassador to Guatemala, and most recently, Belize's Co-Agent at the International Court of Justice. He was an important part of the oversight of the national research effort that will back up Belize's case at the ICJ.
So, now that he is suddenly off that very important team, is Belize's case injured in any way? That's what the press asked Prime Minister John Briceño during a press encounter on Saturday afternoon. Here's the PM's brief response to that question on the Belize/Guatemala Territorial Dispute:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"Alexis Rosado played a very important role, a senior role in the work that we're doing in preparation for our case to the ICJ. But, as Co-agents, what they do is collate. They put all of the papers together. We have different attorneys dealing with different issues. They put it together, and then present it to the ICJ. Fortunately, we don't have 1. We have both, co-agents, meaning that there is more than one. The other co-agent is Ambassador Assad Shoman, a senior person when it comes to - a senior ambassador, and probably the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the issue of the Belize Guatemala dispute. So no, it will not, in any way, affect us. My heart goes out to Alexis Rosado and the issues that he's facing. But like in everything you are - our rule of law is based on the presumption of innocence until you are proven guilty. And I do not want to comment on that matter."
