Joseph Budna, he's still languishing in a Guatemalan prison - and it looks like he will be there for a while more. He was extrajudicially extradited in August of last year - and earlier this week the Prime Minister suggested that they could bring him back in a prisoner swap with Guatemala.
Sounded simple enough - but actually too simple because the Foreign Minister made it clear today that Belize has no such agreement with the Guatemalan government:
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Well we have no, we do not have any prisoner exchange agreement or treaty between Belize and Guatemala. So there's no basis for us to have a prisoner swap. You know, but as I've said repeatedly, we are at the embassy in Guatemala in contact with Mr. BudnA. We are there to provide support to him, in any way that we can. So if he, you know, ask us to do anything on his behalf in terms of reaching out to the Guatemalan government, or the Guatemalan administration, then we will certainly do that."
We note that there is a framework agreement for the repatriation of prisoners in the Belize - Guatemala Confidence Building Measures, but these have not been activated.
