Belize, like several other Central American countries, wonder what will happen to the various agreements that they have signed with Venezuela in recent years should Hugo Chavez lose.
And if the Venezuelan Presidential Elections doesn't strike you as important to Belize, well, it should. That's because our country enjoys several benefits for our relationship with Venezuela.
Two of those major benefits include Mission Milagro, in which hundreds of Belizean patients are flown to Venezuela to receive free eye surgery, and the recently resurrected Petrocaribe agreement, in which Belize gets fuel at low interest credit and deferred payment.
Today, we asked the Embassy's spokesperson about the status of those benefits should their government change.
Here's what he told us:
Gabriel Sanchez
"There is an old saying that one of the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Venezuela used to say which is very clever: we will cross that bridge when we get there. What I can is that the government of Venezuela is fully committed to their agreements. It will continue because of the agreement and we will respect that."Just after being sworn in, Prime Minister Barrow reiterated his pledge to reach out to Chavez in hopes of receiving subsidized oil. The Venezuelan and US elections have the potential to turn events in Central America upside down.
