Guatemalan evacuation not finished yet

It’s been less than two weeks since Guatemala and Belize finalised the decision to expel residents of three illegal settlements near the border, but it somehow seems like an eternity. At newstime the settlers in Machaquila, Rio Blanco and Valentin Camp had still not returned to their native Guatemala, as the details of their departure await resolution. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, David Gibson, told News 5 this afternoon that the International Organisation for Migration had yet to determine the exact amount of compensation to be given to each family by the Guatemalan government. He said, however, that the payments would be dispersed by Tuesday and the last of the settlers evacuated by Wednesday. Indigenous advocacy groups in the nearby town of Poptun have been pressuring the Guatemalan government to go beyond cash compensation and find land for the approximately three hundred people to live on. Community leaders in Machaquila, visited by News 5 over a week ago, said that the reason they entered Belize in the first place was that they were told there was no land for them in Guatemala.

Meanwhile, the delays in organising the departure from the three settlements has pushed back the timetable for the removal of squatters at Edwards Central. Officials of Guatemala and the IOM are expected to visit the encampment, some two point nine kilometres inside Belize, later this week. It is not known whether residents will be offered compensation or simply asked to leave. However it is done, if the Guatemalans do not depart voluntarily the Belize Defence Force is prepared to forcibly evict them once the period of legal notice has expired.