No movement on illegal Guatemalan settlement

The subject has been out of the headlines ever since the three illegal Guatemalan settlements of Machaquila, Rio Blanco and Valentin Camp were evacuated over a month ago, the residents paid off and presumably resettled across the border. But as I speak, another settlement of illegal Guatemalan farmers continues to flourish on Belizean soil. The encampment of some twenty-seven families in the vicinity of Edwards Central in the Columbia River Forest Reserve is close to three kilometres inside Belizean territory and there is no allegation, not even by its residents, that it is part of Guatemala. Previous groups of squatters in the same vicinity have been routinely evicted without incident, including one occasion which was fully documented by News 5 and the Human Rights Commission of Belize. So what’s the problem? It seems that authorities on both sides of the border have grown fond of using an elaborate process of verification, compensation and resettlement, which in this case is taking an inordinate amount of time. The International Organisation for Migration is once again involved and in this case they are also being asked to make a sweep of the southern border area to see if there are any more illegal settlements that need attention. Meanwhile, the B.D.F. is said to be keeping a wary eye on Edwards Central, a very remote area serviced from Belize by a single helicopter landing site carved out of the jungle. If progress is not made over the next several weeks, the matter will be hashed out by negotiators in a session scheduled for April twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth to discuss the progress of these so called confidence building measures.