By Belize Live News Staff: Most of the Caribbean just got handed the keys to Spain. Belize was not among them.
A statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Madrid has revealed that citizens of 60 countries will now enjoy visa-free entry to Spain, including nine CARICOM member states: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Eight African nations also made the cut.
The perk is substantial, visa-free stays of up to 90 days within any 180-day period, covering tourism, business, and other short visits. For the countries included, a trip to Madrid or Barcelona now requires little more than a valid passport and a plane ticket.
For Belizeans, nothing changes. Belize sits among the five CARICOM states excluded from the arrangement, alongside Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, and Haiti, and the statement offered no explanation for who made the list and who did not.
The irony is hard to miss. Belize is the CARICOM country with the deepest Spanish linguistic ties, a nation where Spanish is spoken in homes from Corozal to Toledo, yet its citizens must keep paying visa fees and compiling documents for a country their eastern Caribbean partners can now enter freely. Whether the goal is a holiday, a business meeting, or visiting family in Spain, the Belizean passport still meets a barrier where a Bajan or Trinidadian one no longer does.
It raises a fair question for Belmopan: what would it take to get Belize onto that list? Visa-free arrangements are typically the product of diplomatic engagement, and with nine regional neighbours having secured the prize, Belizeans deserve to know whether their government is pressing Madrid for the same.
For now, the message from Spain is a mixed one, the Caribbean is welcome, but not all of it.
Have you ever applied for a Spanish or European visa, Belize? Tell us about the experience in the comments.
