Guatemala Foreign Minister (left), and Belize Foreign Minister (right) at the OAS.
Belize and Guatemala have today concluded a meeting in Washington and agreed to measures aimed at paving the way for the process of submitting their territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The following is the complete and unredacted text of the joint communique issued today in English and Spanish:
Belize And Guatemala Foreign Ministers Meet With The Secretary General
Today, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), delegations of Belize and Guatemala, headed by their respective Foreign Ministers, the Honorable Wilfred Elrington and His Excellency Haroldo Rodas Melgar met with OAS Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, in a highly cordial and cooperative atmosphere.
The Foreign Ministers expressed their profound appreciation to the Organization of American States and its Secretary General, and underscored the effective and efficient work of the OAS Office in the Adjacency Zone between Belize and
Guatemala, which has been working since 2003 to maintain peace and stability between the two countries.
Both Ministers also clearly recognized the political, technical and financial support provided by the Group of Friends of Belize and Guatemala over the years, and most recently by Canada, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United
States of America. In this connection, they also agreed to convene, along with the Secretary General, a meeting of the Group of Friends in Guatemala City on December 12,2011.
The OAS Secretary General welcomed the renewed commitment of the Foreign Ministers to comply with the terms of the Special Agreement, signed on December 8, 2008 under the auspices of the OAS, with regard to holding the simultaneous
referenda. To this end, the Secretary General will convene a bilateral meeting immediately after the electoral processes in Belize have concluded, with a view to holding the referenda before the end of the year 2013.
The Secretary General urged the Parties to begin the education campaigns aimed at sensitizing the public, prior to holding the referenda, and reiterated the full support of the OAS to carry out this task.
The Foreign Ministers also agreed that the Secretary General would convene a meeting of the High-Level Working Group during the first quarter of 2012 to strengthen cooperation and coordination between inter-governmental agencies, as well as to identify joint opportunities and programs in the fields of education, technical cooperation, and development to consolidate the already friendly relations between the two neighbors.
Washington, D.C. November 28, 2011
Dear Friends,
I still strongly believe that it is the responsibility of Great Britain to resolve the territorial dispute between Belize and Guatemala with the country of Spain. When the countries of Latin America broke away from Spain, there was no country by the name of Guatemala but a country by the name of the Central American Republic which was comprised of the following countries; Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala with the capital in Guatemala City. Belize was under the Captaincy General of New Spain headquartered in Mexico City and Granados in Guatemala City. The other countries broke away from Guatemala and declared themselves independent republics.
If those countries had the right to break away and declared themselves separate and independent states then the people and country of Belize should also be entitled to have that same right as was expressed years earlier in the Battle of Saint Georges Caye on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of September 1798. Great Britain was not interested in making Belize an independent country but more in cutting logwood and mahogany from the country. If they wanted Belize to be independent, they could have forced Spain into signing off Belize in several treaties but refused to do so. It was the settlers of Belize that forced Great Britain to grant Belize colony status.
Now, after years of exploiting the country of Belize, the people of Belize find themselves still being claimed by the people and country of Guatemala. Yet, the other countries that broke away from Guatemala are independent. Great Britain should continue to pursue a treaty with Spain over this territorial dispute because they are the original cause of this ongoing problem Belize have with Guatemala.
They have walked away from Belize without any security arrangements like a father who abandoned his child and left him or her to die. Guatemala have more than enough land to give all the indigenous Maya Indians who inhabited the country long before Spain came to this part of the world and need no more. They continue to stop them from owning land and killing these people innocently forcing them to come to Belize to occupy our lands without anything being done.
If any of these countries reject the proposal to take this issue to the ICJ then we end up no where after years of negotiations. We should consider the following; a Treaty between Great Britain and Spain and a Treaty between Belize and Guatemala all taking place at the same time before we submit this matter to the people of Belize and Guatemala in a referendum to decide whether this matter should be taken to the ICJ for final resolution. Once the treaty is signed and agreed upon, it is submitted to the World Body for enforcement by the OAS and the United Nations. This dispute has been going on for too long with no end in sight and most Belizeans unlike Guatemalans are not educated by the Government of Belize about this dispute.
Nationalist Belizean
Wellington C. Ramos
Adjunct Professor of Political Science and History
Dear Wellington,
The United Kingdom never walked away from Belize as you state in emotive terms, but rather took charge of their own destiny with the award of Independence from the U.K.in 1981. For your interest Belize remains a full fledged member of the Briish Commonwealth and other organisations, so I would retract your statement about Belize being abandoned to fend for its self in constitutional matters. The Queen remains Head of State.
We could start to point fingers and it wouldn’t matter. What matters is how we should careflully strategize the mitigation of posssible future conflict and ensuring the security of our out territory. Looking at the list of border or land disputes on this universe is endless and the list of complete successes is so few. The most recent independent nations of Sudan and South Sudan started off with some land dispute over the Abjei area. Some of the older disputes are still amongst first world countries for centuries now. ICJ has a history of judgment of over a very few disputes and even with these few cases, the solution is not 100%. Should Belize and Guatemala go to ICJ and a judment is made, it will not be a 100% solution. Belize and Guatemala will have some border, land, or maritime disagreement to deal with in the future. The machinery of the National Security Strategy has to be placed in motion so as to successfully safeguard our territory and its people. We should just be hopefull that ICJ will be the solution.