Guatemalan evacuation stalled? Reasons unclear

Only a few weeks ago in the wake of a favourable border survey by the OAS, there was no shortage of government spokesmen, all too ready to profess cautious optimism of a new era in Belize-Guatemala relations. Today, with illegal Guatemalan settlers still firmly planted on Belizean territory, official information is as scarce as a deluxe room at the Hattieville Ramada. News 5’s efforts to update the status of over three hundred settlers who should have been paid off and escorted across the border by Guatemalan authorities several days ago have been met with silence. This in itself may not be significant, but calls to both Belmopan and Guatemala City give the impression that the evacuation has stalled and nobody’s eager to say why. Belize’s ambassador, Moises Cal, was this evening called to the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry and the betting is that it wasn’t to be informed that all is well. Pessimists on the Belize side have long cautioned that the Guatemalans were not likely to cooperate in the politically embarrassing exercise and preferred instead to test the resolve of the Belize government. The scenario would be to leave the farmers in their three settlements and force the BDF to push them out at gunpoint. The inevitable photographs of Belizean soldiers torching the peasants’ thatch roof houses would then cast Belize in the role of aggressor. At this point it is still just that–a scenario–but one which becomes more likely with every passing day.