OAS map shows that Guate. settlements are illegal
When members of Belize’s negotiating team returned home to Belize on Thursday, they not only brought the report of the OAS appointed border surveyor; they also brought his map. That map was shown publicly for the first time on Thursday night’s One on One show featuring negotiators Assad Shoman and Fred Martinez. Martinez first explained the work of cartographer Paul Peeler with respect to the three key border markers.
Fred Martinez
“What was commissioned of Pan American Institute of Geography and History, was that the three main border markers which are Gracias a Dios in the south, that is one of the main monuments. The monument control station, and the measurements of the latitude and longitude were taken. Then the middle one, which is close to the Melchor/Benque border, which is Garbutt’s Falls Monument, then going all the way up to the Mexican/Guatemala/Belize tri-state point, which is Aguas Turbias. Those were measured, their accuracy is one centimetre.”
Stewart Krohn
“So for all time nobody can anymore argue what the coordinates are.”
Fred Martinez
“For the first time in our history, we have extreme accurate coordinates for those three monuments.”
Martinez then focussed on the survey of the three illegal Guatemalan settlements of Valentin Camp, Rio Blanco and Machaquila.
Fred Martinez
“That gives you in greater detail the four huts that were found (in Valentin Camp) and they measured. Each little white box indicates the latitude and longitude and the precise distance from the red line, which is the borderline. Notice that there is only one red dot that is within the red line and the black line, which is the adjacency zone, the other three are outside. That shows you the different measurements taken within that settlement (Rio Blanco Camp). There are about twenty-five huts in that settlement and two of them were measured, the easternmost and the westernmost. The westernmost was found to be one point one kilometre from the border, so just a hundred metres from the zone… very close, clearly in Belize”
Stewart Krohn
“The closeness had to do with how close they were to the adjacency zone, not to the border. There’s never been a doubt.”
Fred Martinez
“Never a doubt. All the time we knew that they were in Belize.”
Stewart Krohn
“This one (Machaquila) wasn’t even close I gather, this was well outside the adjacency zone.”
Fred Martinez
“This was well off. This was one point eight kilometres from the borderline.”
The survey, agreed to by both Guatemala and Belize, is accurate to approximately one centimetre. Next week the settlers will be informed that they must return home. If they do so voluntarily they will be paid by the Guatemalan Government for any crops and buildings left behind. If they insist on staying they will be forcibly removed by Belizean authorities.
