Belize Delegation Strengthens Ties with El Salvador Amid Controversial Second Term for Bukele

Foreign Affairs Minister, Francis Fonseca, has been busy in recent weeks as he expresses Belize’s support and comradery with several nations.  In the first instance, Fonseca was a part of the Belize delegation led by Prime Minister John Briceno over the weekend in El Salvador.  On Sunday, El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele met with the delegation as he was sworn in for a second term in office.  While Belize now seeks to further strengthen its working relations with El Salvador, Minister Fonseca was asked about the country’s perspective on how Bukele subverted the system in order to run and serve for a second term in office.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Our presence there at the inauguration, the Prime Minister and I, was there we were there as fellow leaders of Central American countries. We belonged to SICA. President Bukele, whatever you think of his policies, his politics, he was duly elected by the people of Salvador in an overwhelming manner. So, you know, we engage with leaders from all over the world. That doesn’t mean that we support their policies and their programs but we respect the determination and decisions of their people to elect them. And we thought it was important for Belize to engage and to be present, to participate in the inauguration ceremony because we are also involved at the the economic level in terms of specific projects that we’re working on with Salvador. We’re working on a sort of free trade agreement with what we call a partial scope agreement with Salvador to improve and expand trading opportunities for Belize. We’re also looking at tourism. How can we expand tourism with Salvador? And again, also agriculture. So those were three areas. And also investment, investment. Four areas that we discussed with President Bukele and his team. We want to be in a position to engage more with a country like Salvador which has 7 million people. Therein lies an opportunity for Belize to increase trade and expand trade. So we thought it was right to be present.”