Opposition Representative Says Washington Trip was an Embarrassment

Eamon Courtenay

So with no protocols established, no formal or informal draft and no concrete establishment of a relationship in the Sarstoon pending the formal protocols, what really came out of that Washington trip? Senator Eamon Courtenay, the Opposition Representative for the Guatemala talks prior to them removing themselves from those talks, had definite ideas about that when he spoke to News Five following a P.U.P. Executive Meeting today.

Eamon Courtenay, Opposition Representative, Guatemalan Talks

“All that we have been able to gather is what was said in the media yesterday and then a press release was issued by the Organization of American States today. I think that when you read the press release form the O.A.S. it celebrates an absolute failure. It is an embarrassment to Belize and an embarrassment to the process. Anyone who attends a meeting and comes out with a result like that should be condemned in no uncertain terms. Insofar as the People’s United Party is concerned, we are deeply disappointed with the results but we are not surprised. We made a very fundamental point which is that we disagree with the approach of the Government of Belize on this issue. The Government has no plan, it has no strategy, it has no objective in mind, and when one looks back at what has been happening over the past few months, it seems to us that there are two things that the government is doing – one is talking and talking and talking, and the second is hoping and hoping and hoping. They are talking to Guatemala ad nauseum and they are hoping that the Foreign Minister of Guatemala and the Guatemalan government is going to somehow one day change their mind and just withdraw from their complete control over the Sarstoon. From the perspective of the P.U.P., talking and hoping is not a plan. Talking and hoping is not a strategy. And more importantly all this talking is only confirming Guatemala’s control over the Sarstoon and it is not reversing that illegality.”