P.U.P. Leader Meets with O.A.S. Secretary-General
This morning, Briceño also briefed News Five on the meeting with Secretary-General Almagro which included the participation of former P.U.P. Foreign Ministers Said Musa, Lisa Shoman, Godfrey Smith and Eamon Courtenay. He told us that the Opposition took great pains to reject Guatemala’s claim and recent actions and also to let him know that the Opposition will stand with the Government to protect Belize’s sovereignty.
John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader
“This is his first official visit to Belize and as part of his visit he had asked from before that he would like to meet with me as the Leader of the Opposition and I took the opportunity to be able to invite our team that is advising the Party on Belize/Guatemala to meet with him and to discuss the issues which are confronting us at the moment with Belize and Guatemala.”
John Briceño
Reporter
“Was there anything specific said about the Sarstoon in light of what is happening in that area?”
John Briceño
“We discussed that briefly because we don’t have all the details. But certainly we made it abundantly clear to the Secretary-General of the O.A.S. that we reject any idea of a status quo in the Sarstoon as purported by Guatemala. Our former Prime Minister has said that over the forty years plus that he has worked on this matter he has never known about any status quo. We as a party reject that idea, we find it insulting to consider that the Guatemalans are now saying that we need to ask permission for the use of the Sarstoon River, so we wanted to make that very clear to the Secretary-General.”
Very good. I think that this team should be representing the government in negotiation on the Guatemalan claim. I am sure by now Mr. Musa and the others would have already briefed Great Britain and other friendly countries.
Full agreement with PUP statements. They should have added that Belize will never entertain the idea of having the ICJ involved in settling this situation. That will definitely eliminate the sovereignty
that our country has worked for in the world community. We are an independent and sovereign nation and do not need a rogue court making judgments that will not be in our best interest. The ICJ was created out of thin air. Who gave them the authority to be judge and jury for Belizeans.