Former Ambassador Reflects on Supporting Critical Consular Services Provided to Belizeans Abroad

After more than five years representing Belize in Mexico, Ambassador Oscar Arnold is reflecting not only on the strengthening of diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries, but also on the critical consular services provided to Belizeans abroad.  Arnold served as Belize’s Ambassador to Mexico from January 2020 until May 2026, before assuming his new role as Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade on June 1. In recent interviews, Arnold has highlighted key achievements during his tenure, including the expansion of bilateral trade, support for Belizean exports, and closer cooperation between Belize and Mexico.  But beyond diplomacy and commerce, Arnold says a significant part of the embassy’s work involved assisting Belizean nationals facing challenges in Mexico, including those who found themselves incarcerated in Mexican prisons.  According to Arnold, the embassy regularly provided consular support to Belizeans in distress, ensuring that their rights were respected and that they maintained contact with family members and Belizean authorities.

Oscar Arnold, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “We have, at the time of my departure from the embassy, we had about six Belizean nationals who are incarcerated in different areas of Mexico for varying crimes. And so the service that we provide them there is that we would touch base with them every two months, every three months to check on them to ensure that their human rights is not being violated. Obviously, we understand that they are serving a sentence for a crime that was committed or that they were sentenced for. And so, but a few of them require a special treatment, special medications, whatever they’re diabetics or hypertensive and we just have to ensure that they’re getting those medications to time and so that is one of the services that we provide. We’ve had issues where people have gotten into accidents in different parts of Mexico to ensure that they are given the right services from the authorities, that they get legal representation in the instances where they need those. We’ve had the Belizeans who have had traveled documents stolen from them or lost. Again, that is another service that we provide as an embassy to try to ensure that they have a travel document, even if it’s a temporary travel document for them to travel back home. So those run the gamut of the services that we provide to Belizeans there. We’ve had to provide advice on customs issues with people who shipments have been held up at one port or the other. We’ve also had to do that as well.”

As he transitions into his new responsibilities as CEO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Arnold says the lessons learned during his more than five-year diplomatic posting will continue to guide his work in advancing Belize’s interests both at home and abroad.