Religious leaders unite on Guatemalan issue
On Sundays they preach in different churches, but today they spoke with a single voice. Ann-Marie Williams reports from the Radisson on the latest wrinkle in the Guatemalan claim.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
For the first time in our country’s history the leaders of Belize’s religious community joined hearts and hands to pray for Belize as she goes through the process of negotiating with Guatemala.
This morning’s press conference saw thirteen denominations signed a declaration, pledging to pray for the negotiating team and also to communicate with religious groups in Guatemala. The signed declaration was then presented to Deputy Prime Minister Johnny Briceno, negotiator Fred Martinez, and Attorney General Godfrey Smith.
Johnny Briceno, Deputy Prime Minister
“First of all, we always the blessings of God, which in many instances in our busy lives we tend to forget. And here is one instance where they are going to take an active part praying for all of us, not only for the Belize negotiating team and the Belizean people, but even for the Guatemalan team and its people. They also have a lot of extensive contacts in Guatemala and they can be talking to them on a personal basis, one to one explaining to them what is the situation here and how we can find a solution to the problem. So we feel that there’s a two-prong approach: prayers that we always need and also their individual contacts with their counterparts in Guatemala.”
Fred Martinez, Negotiator
“It means a lot internationally also that it is not only at the political level that Belize is united, but also at the religious level. This is very historic that we found the leaders of all the denominations in Belize here today praying for the negotiating team, praying for the negotiating process, praying for peace and applauding and lauding the national unity that Belize now has in this issue with Guatemala. It is not a political issue anymore, it is a national issue.”
And this national issue it seems, has taken on a renewed sense of prominence especially since Father Salvador Kutzal, a catholic priest based in Poptun, Guatemala, has been encouraging the illegal settlers to stay in Belize.
Fred Martinez
“He has been a fighter for the human rights of the indigenous people in Guatemala, who have been mistreated over the past decades and continue to be mistreated. He fights for their rights, but he fights… the way he espouses those rights is that there are no political borders and therefore if they are in Belize it is just as well if they are in Guatemala because after all these are all Mayan lands from historic times. And that is where he comes in conflict. Not that he’s espousing anything wrong other than to tell the people settle where ever you want to settle, after all these lands belong to our ancestors. But he is fighting for his people, but at the same time creating an international problem. I guess through the various religious channels they will try to approach the authorities in Guatemala to tone down his rhetoric and to show him that he he’s not only creating a problem within Guatemala, he’s creating one within Belize.”
Monsignor Dorrick Wright says the church in Belize is playing its part.
Monsignor Dorrick Wright, Vicar General
“All the religious denominations, Christian and non-Christian, have been unified to give their support to our political leaders. I think the process they have been taking so far is the best one, in which we use diplomacy, and we are giving our support to our political leaders to let them see that we’re behind them. I believe in prayers and for the past month or so I’ve been praying that we find a lasting and just solution to this problem.”
Rev. Otto Wade, Superintendent, Wesley Circuit
“The naming of two persons from the religious community to the National Commission is an important step and we ourselves have the further movements. One will be what we do in terms of fellow Christians in Guatemala, and I am sure that the different churches including our own, because there are Methodists in Guatemala as well, not the same church that we belong to, but you have the indigenous Methodist church in Guatemala. I’ve been to some of those churches and I am sure that we can engage with them.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Chief negotiator Assad Shoman and negotiating team member Fred Martinez have embarked on a massive PR campaign to explain Belize’s position to as many different groups as possible.
