PM discusses Belize/Guatemala relations
His tour de Europe complete, tonight PM Musa is back at the helm. Musa returned on Sunday after visiting England, Rome and Spain to strengthen Belize’s relations with those countries in areas such as trade and economic development. But on his travels abroad one issue on the home front always on top of the “to talk about list” was the Belize/Guatemala relations and Guatemala’s continued claim for Belizean land. PM says the issue was important to the discussions in order to lobby support from the international community.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“We are going into talks with the Guatemalans, but we cannot put all our efforts just on the dialogue. We have to ensure that our back is covered. We need to ensure that we have the support of those who had supported us in the past. The British Government, the Commonwealth countries, and we’re looking of course to other countries now, to take a more active support role for Belize, including Spain. Spain has a very big role to play in Latin America today since the Ibero America conferences have been taking place and we felt we should not concede Spain to Guatemala. Traditionally because they are Latin countries or Spanish speaking countries, people tended to view Spain as a country that would normally support Guatemala. When in fact the records will show that Spain voted for Belize at the United Nations in 1980 supporting our sovereignty and territorial integrity. So I was able to remind President Aznar about this and of course he said that Spain continues in its policy of support for the self-determination of the Belizean people. With the British government, to be candid about it, we were a little concerned that they might have been sending the wrong message to Guatemala. The sort of evenhandedness, new British approach to the problem saying, Belize and Guatemala, solve your problems, we are no longer in the picture. And we reminded the British Government, that again at the United Nations, the administering power in 1980 which was the UK gave an undertaking to continue to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Belize, and we were able to show the British government that it was only after 1994 when the British troop defense umbrella withdrew, that Guatemala began to reactivate its claim to our country. So we said, it wasn’t a coincidence that this was happening and it was important for Britain to send a clear signal to Guatemala, leave Belize alone.”
Musa says after three members of the Belize Defense Force and a police officer were kidnapped in February, border patrols were briefly suspended. However, Musa says the suspension was necessary in order to reconfigure the sizes of the patrols. The Prime Minister says aerial surveillance as well as foot patrols continue to protect Belize’s border. News Five understands that on Tuesday, the PM will be meeting with the Leader of the Opposition to discuss Belize Guatemala relations.
