New Guat. Foreign Min. ready to tackle Bz. question

The new Foreign Minister of Guatemala has made his first official remarks on the issue of Belize. Speaking on Monday upon taking up office, Edgar Gutierrez referred to a number of challenges facing the last year of the Portillo administration. While Belize was not at the top of the list, his remarks appear to be encouraging. The following translation from Spanish is that of Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“With respect to Belize, the President’s policy of exploring peaceful, negotiated and definitive solutions to the historical dispute will be strengthened. There already exists, within the framework of the O.A.S., a package of proposals that should be known more widely and studied and analyzed by various sectors so that they can progressively be assumed in a manner consequent to a position of the State. We reaffirm our pacifist vocation, and the desire to find a definitive and prompt solution. In any arrangement format, the national dignity has primacy. We aspire to route actions that create closer ties with our fellow Belizeans and that facilitate us the promotion of shared projects and policies. We are still concerned about the high porosity of the Adjacency Zone, and we urgently require bilateral and multilateral co-operation in order to avoid incidents and undesirable conflicts.”

A meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Belize and Guatemala is scheduled for January seventh at the O.A.S. in Washington.