Belize and Guatemala hold talks at OAS

Technical talks on the territorial dispute between Belize and Guatemala went ahead as scheduled today, but this time they were held at the Organization of American States in Washington D.C. They were originally scheduled for Miami late last month, but canceled after four Belizean soldiers were detained by the Guatemalan army. Today’s meeting was conducted in the presence of the Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. César Gaviria. The Guatemalan delegation was headed by Viceminister of Foreign Relations Antonio Castellanos and Permanent Secretary David Gibson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed the team from Belize. According to a statement issued this afternoon by the OAS Secretariat, the atmosphere was one of respect and cordiality and included the preparation of a draft agenda by the delegations, which would be considered by their respective ministers. This included proposals on the juridical aspects of Guatemala’s territorial claim. The delegations agreed to develop and implement confidence-building measures, to improve existing arrangements to avoid the recurrence of border incidents, and to facilitate negotiations. They also agreed to continue discussions on problem solving capabilities and strengthening bilateral relations. At the request of both delegations, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States will continue to provide support to facilitate the progress of discussions. The Belize Government suspended the Miami talks on February 24th after four Belizeans were picked up by Guatemalan soldiers, near the Treetops Observation post in southern Belize. A judge released them nine days later into the custody of Belize’s Ambassador Salvador Figueroa, who brought the men back to Belize that night. As a result of his actions Figueroa was expelled from Guatemala and the members of the patrol have been declared “fugitives” by the Guatemalan Government. Figueroa and the Belize government have maintained that the patrol’s detention was illegal and that Belize had no intention of allowing the men to be put on trial in Guatemala. It is widely believed in Belize that the kidnapping was orchestrated by parties, who wanted to derail the technical talks and force Belize to agree to have the territorial dispute arbitrated by an international court. Belize was represented at the meeting today by Ambassadors James Murphy and Salvador Figueroa, Permanent Secretary David Gibson, Jim Hyde of the Commission on Belize Guatemala Relations and Nestor Mendez of the Belize Embassy in Washington.