Talks in Guatemala open Monday

On Monday morning talks between Belize and Guatemala will open in Washington, D.C. Under the agreement signed in Miami on January seventeenth, the new round of negotiations, to be held at OAS headquarters, will for the first time deal with the substantive matter of Guatemala’s territorial claim. Just how far the parties will travel down that road, however, is somewhat in doubt. Although the problem of illegal Guatemalan settlements in Belize remains unresolved, the issue has not been placed on the Washington agenda. This is because it is supposed to be covered clearly under the January seventeenth agreement. The results of the technical survey of the border will be submitted to the parties sometime during the negotiation, however, and it is difficult to imagine that the crucial issue of defining the frontier will be ignored. Leading the Belize delegation once again will be Ambassador Assad Shoman. Among the other members are David Gibson, Sal Figueroa, Lisa Shoman, Stuart Leslie, Moises Cal, Eamon Courtney and Fred Martinez. The Guatemalan side is led by Foreign Minister Gabriel Orellana. The Belizeans will caucus at our Washington embassy on Sunday and Thursday with three days of negotiations in between.