Taiwan Delivers Massive Funding for Major Guatemalan Road; Belize Gets Sixty Mil

Earlier today the Guatemalan Congress approved the holding of a referendum to take its territorial claim over Belize to the International Court of Justice. According to reports in Prensa Libre, a Guatemalan newspaper, the Congress gave the go ahead to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to poll Guatemalans if they would agree to take the claim before the I.C.J.  On this side, the government has also been carrying out education campaigns on the issue, but Prime Minister Dean Barrow has said that a referendum will not be held until after municipal elections next year.

Still on the issue of Guatemala….on his visit to Belize last week, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Doctor David Lee, signed an agreement with Belize to provide sixty million dollars in grants and loans to be spread over the next four years. The government responded by conferring the Order of Distinction on Minister Lee. But did Belize get too little because there are reports that during a mid-July visit by Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales, Taiwan granted Guatemala six hundred and fifty million dollars for a road in Puerto Barios, which incidentally is the road that was never built by the British.