Guatemalans agree to meet in Miami

Belize’s embassy in Guatemala City has confirmed that the Guatemalan government will be participating in the ministerial level talks to be held in Miami on January sixteenth. The invitation was issued by the two facilitators in the Belize-Guatemala negotiations, Sir Shridath Ramphal and Paul Reichler. Tensions have been mounting at the border as Guatemala reacted noisily to an announcement last week by the Belize government that it would be expelling over three hundred Guatemalan settlers illegally camped in two communities on the Belize side of the border. That action has been postponed at the urging of the facilitators who have arranged the Miami meeting in the hopes of setting out more precise procedures to deal with such situations. The Belize delegation to the talks will be led by Ambassador Assad Shoman and includes his colleagues ambassadors Sal Figueroa, Lisa Shoman and Moises Cal as well as former ambassador Fred Martinez. Lindsay Belisle will attend as a technical consultant on border issues.