Guatemalan Foreign Minister Speaks on ICJ Referendum

Carlos Raul Morales

Will Guatemala proceed to a simultaneous referendum on whether or not to take the unfounded territorial claim to the International Court of Justice? On this side, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington has been consistent that it is the way to go, but in Guatemala, it has not been as clear as that. An education campaign leading up to the referendum was launched jointly in 2013; however, the referendum would not be held since Guatemala reneged on the exercise in light of Belize’s existing legislation.  On Wednesday, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales said that the process is primarily different in both countries because of their populations.

Carlos Raul Morales, Foreign Minister, Guatemala

“We have to cover all the areas the special agreement doesn’t cover and now we are talking with my friend Minister Elrington.  We are trying to have a protocol where in some country, because it could happen in Guatemala too, we have to work with the population, it’s almost eight million people.  In Belize I think it’s almost one hundred and sixty thousand people…  We have eight million people, it’s a lot of people.  Then the idea is to try to establish a protocol where, because it is very important to understand, the ICJ is the only way, as the minister mentioned, to have a, to set up the borders, to finish with this bilateral differendum and then the idea is to make sure that we will have a sentence from the ICJ.  Then we cannot take the risk that if in any country people say no, the people say no this is not an option for the ICJ because we cannot live forever with this problem.  We need to solve this bilateral differendum but I am so sure, we are so positive.  I know today is different than fifty years ago, than sixty years ago and the idea is to work together, this is why we are trying to work together through these agreements.  These agreements give us the opportunity to know each other better and to live as good neighbors and prevent any kind of incidents because any incidents that occur between Belize and Guatemala they damage the relationship between the populations, between the governments and we need to avoid these kinds of incidents.”