Guatemala Counter-proposals Weren’t All Flatly Rejected

John Saldivar

The last we heard, Guatemala had rejected eleven proposals presented by Belize to government rules of engagement in the Sarstoon. At the same time, we heard that Belize had roundly rejected Guatemala’s counter-proposals asking for a return to the status-quo. So with a rejection from both sides, the talks are presumably on hold right? Well, as we found out today, that’s not exactly accurate, and Guatemala’s proposals weren’t exactly rejected out of hand.

John Saldivar, Minister of National Security [File: April 20^th, 2016]

“We were informed officially in Cabinet of the rejection of the Guatemalans of our proposal. We also saw what their supposed counter proposals were, which we again flatly reject because it says precisely what was asked just now—they want us to ask permission—and we flatly reject that.”

Sedi Elrington

Sedi Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“That was not correct either actually. The counter-proposal has been sent to us and we see it as now the basis for us to now go into greater detail in working it out. I think that most of it seems to have been to me very consistent with the proposals we had made. There is one particular item there which we have difficulty with and which we will negotiate in due course. But outside of that we didn’t have any difficulty with it other than the very first proposal and we expected that we would have to negotiate because in these matters you have to negotiate until you arrive on common ground. We are in the process of doing that and as soon as we reach a settlement we will let you know and the public know what the situation is.”