Rejects proposals, but Guat. seeks friendship

One week after Guatemala rejected the Ramphal-Reichler proposals for settling that country’s long-standing territorial claim to Belize, today News 5 went straight to the top–or almost to the top–for an explanation of the abrupt change. Guatemalan Foreign Minister Edgar Gutierrez, who is in Belize for a technical meeting in advance of tomorrow’s gathering of Central American heads of government, this morning told News 5 that while his government gave the proposals a thumbs down, the door is still open for a negotiated settlement of the claim. Gutierrez told reporters that after studying the proposals, fundamental flaws were discovered, which prevented his administration from accepting them as the way to solve the dispute.

Edgar Gutierrez, Guatemala Foreign Minister

“Two reasons, they do not reflect the national interest of Guatemala and the violate our constitution.”

Patrick Jones

“What happens now?”

Edgar Gutierrez

“We have to continue working on confidence building measures and positive actions. The process of integration of the countries would not be put on hold. Belize is a part of the Central American Integration System; we are integrationists or have aspirations for integration. We need to continue working together and find a definitive solution.”

“It’s not something that I am expected to evaluate quickly. What I’ve had to look at–and it was not an easy decision to make–is that proposals took months of consultation and discussions to come up with. These recommendations are not convenient for Guatemala and its national interest and we cannot submit them to a referendum. The authorities in charge of carrying out the laws, do not feel that they could offer these proposal to the people of Guatemala at this time in accordance with the laws of the land.” (Translated from Spanish)

Last week, Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs Godfrey Smith, expressed disappointment over Guatemala’s rejection of the proposals. Smith says that Belize considers the February seventh, 2002 agreement signed at the O.A.S. and witnessed by Secretary General Cesar Gaviria binding on both Belize and Guatemala. Belize has started an international lobby to keep the facilitation process on track. It’s not certain if Prime Minister Musa will bring up the issue on Thursday when President Alfonso Portillo will be in Belize for the SICA summit, but Gutierrez says that since the two leaders are close friends, they might find time to talk about the situation.