The PUP calls for the resignation of Foreign Minister, Wilfred Elrington

Eamon Courtenay

The Belize/Guatemala dispute was fully ventilated at today’s press conference. Senator Eamon Courtenay said the possibility of a referendum to lead us to the International Court of Justice is not any closer after all the discussions have been made over the past years.  Courtenay says that a referendum may be at least four years away given that upcoming elections in both countries would interfere with any meaningful consultation process.  But Courtenay put the heat on the government when he called on Wilfred Elrington, the Foreign Minister, to resign because of his recent description of the Belize/Guatemala border as an artificial border, rather than a real one.

Eamon Courtenay, Senator

“Both Belize and Guatemala have agreed to seek the approval of their respective peoples to submit the dispute to the International Court of Justice for determination. Today the People’s United Party wishes to express its serious concern at the lack of progress on the referendum process which we have seen to date. More than one year has passed since the December eighth, 2008 signing of the Special Agreement and we appear no closer to the referenda. It now seems impractical and unlikely for a referendum to be held until after the 2013 general elections in Belize. This means that the earliest possible time that a court hearing can be arranged, if the people approve in referendum, would be in 2017. We believe that this inordinate delay calls for a reassessment of the Belize Guatemala relations. Public records reveal that illegal migration by Guatemalans into Belize is on the increase. The number of illegal settlements in the border area has also increased. Additionally, deforestation and cultivation in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve by Guatemalan nationals has reached unprecedented and unacceptable levels. The People’s United Party, therefore today at this time and place in historic Independence Hall, calls on the Government of Belize to prepare within sixty days a White Paper on Belize Guatemala Relations. This White Paper should have as its main elements, a factual description of the devastating effects of deforestation, cultivation, over-fishing and pollution and other illegal activities; it should elaborate a comprehensive strategy to immediately redress these urgent problems; and thirdly it should provide estimates of the resources – financial and otherwise – required to implement and fund the strategy.

“The People’s United Party again takes this opportunity to repeat our condemnation of Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington for his description of our border with Guatemala as “artificial”. We reject this description. We assert without equivocation that we have had and continue to have and will always have a real border with Guatemala as defined in the Constitution of Belize.

To Mr. Elrington we say, you had yesterday the humility and decency to apologize to the Chief Justice; it is long past the time that you apologize to the entire Belize nation. We demand a retraction of the statement, we demand a public clarification of the true and correct position, and we demand the resignation of Wilfred Elrington.”

Whether or not the government will listen, that’s a call for another day.