Guatemala prefers O.A.S. to World Court

The Government of Guatemala will ask the O.A.S. to once again become involved in settling that country’s claim to Belize. That’s the word from Guatemalan Foreign Minister Jorge Briz, who announced on Sunday that he will be meeting this week in Florida with O.A.S. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. Briz’s move appears to come in reaction to remarks made last week in Guyana by Prime Minister Said Musa suggesting that Belize, in view of Guatemalan intransigence, would take its case to the World Court at The Hague. The Guatemalan request is puzzling in view of that country’s abrupt rejection of the original O.A.S. mediation in 2002, in which O.A.S. facilitators had agreed on a settlement plan that would have been submitted to referenda in each country.