Guatemalans evacuate settlements in Belize

At last there is forward movement to report on the evacuation of three illegal Guatemalan settlements in Toledo. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday began to pay compensation to heads of households and some have already headed west across the border. The process began slowly with only three of approximately twenty-five families receiving money in Machaquila and four out of five in Valentin Camp. But today eighteen of thirty-four families in Rio Blanco accepted compensation and on Friday officials hope to complete the process, returning to Rio Blanco and Machaquila. Most of the inhabitants of the latter settlement were not there on Wednesday, having gone to demonstrate in Guatemala City, demanding that the government provide them with land. Ministry of Foreign Affairs CEO, David Gibson, told News 5 that he was happy with the process and the fact that most inhabitants were accepting the compensation–which in some cases approached fifteen thousand Quetzales, or four thousand Belize dollars. Those who choose not to go will be given expulsion orders by Belizean authorities which require them to leave within a day or face forcible eviction by security forces. Gibson told us that a fourth settlement, only recently discovered at Edwards Central, some two point nine kilometres inside Belize, will be dealt with in a more straightforward manner as specified in Annex B of the Miami protocols of January seventeenth.