Facilitators’ report due in August
Members of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry were briefed last night on the current state of the facilitation process to settle the Guatemalan claim to Belize. Although Foreign Minister Assad Shoman was a no-show due to an urgent meeting in Mexico, negotiating team members Eamon Courtenay and Fred Martinez handled matters in his absence. While by necessity neither presenter could reveal confidential decisions relating to the negotiations, some matters were clarified and others confirmed for the first time.
Regarding the presentation of final proposals at the O.A.S. in Washington, no date has yet been set and it appears that late August may be the most likely timing. The Pope will be visiting Guatemala at the end of this month and there appears to be some hope that he will use his influence to encourage a just settlement.
Meanwhile, some of the nations and organisations who have committed to the two hundred million U.S. dollar development fund were named. These include the United Kingdom, U.S.A., Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, European Union and Interamerican Development Bank. The bank will also act as the administrator of the fund, which is supposed to finance development projects, primarily in border areas.
The role of the facilitators was also discussed and while it is understood that they are to incorporate the respective positions of the two countries into their proposals, if there is an unbridgeable gap between the two sides, the facilitators may use their discretion in putting together a set of recommendations. This means that there is a slim possibility that the final proposal may incorporate elements that one or even both governments find objectionable.
On the issue of land, it was revealed that a high-tech O.A.S. sponsored survey of the border shows that the old survey line, supposedly running due north from the Garbutt’s Falls monument, is in fact slightly off. By the time the true line reaches Aguas Turbias in Orange Walk the error amounts to six hundred and ten feet. This means that Belize is currently occupying a long triangle of land measuring about three square miles that rightly belongs to Guatemala. This anomaly is not a part of the negotiations, however, as there is general agreement that, as in any survey, the description is paramount. Due north means due north–and if the original survey was inaccurate then both parties are bound to accept an improved and impartial version.
But there is another land issue that is up for discussion… or perhaps was. When Eamon Courtenay was asked whether a land swap was on the negotiating table, he replied emphatically: “I know of no such agreement by government to approve any land swap.”
Viewers of last night’s newscast may recall that we reported on the village of Santa Rosa, a community of approximately twenty families illegally established in a forest reserve just inside Belizean territory. Guatemala is seeking to acquire this land in exchange for an equal size chunk of Guatemalan land near El Pilar in the Cayo District. Reports to News 5 indicate that there have been attempts to finesse the issue with discussions of a land lease or creation of bi-national parks, but it would appear that there is a more practical way to handle the problem of Santa Rosa, whose inhabitants seem more concerned with survival than with nationality. And that would be to grant them Belizean citizenship and move them to a new site well within Belizean territory and well outside the Columbia River Forest Reserve.
