Foreign Minister defends policy on Santa Rosa
On Friday, word out of Belmopan indicated that eight Guatemalan families living in the illegal settlement of Santa Rosa in southern Belize had been relocated to Peten, Guatemala. But on the heels of that announcement came reports that some of those villagers had decided to move east instead of west to take up residence in Belizean communities. This morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Lisa Shoman maintained that Santa Rosa is being dismantled and that everyone is heading back across the border.
Lisa Shoman, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“On three separate occasions when asked by the O.A.S. what it was that they wanted, the families of Santa Rosa all unanimously signed documents saying that their wish was to be relocated from Santa Rosa and to be relocated into Guatemala. There has been no occasion upon which the families of Santa Rosa have ever indicated any want to remove to other villages in Belize. If that was the case, I believe Santa Rosa would have been dealt with a long time ago. The donor community would not necessarily have been there to put up the funding, but they did that satisfied from the O.A.S. and from all indicators that this is what the people of Santa Rosa themselves wanted, i.e. to go to Guatemala, to live in Guatemala as a Guatemalan community. So no, from what we have there are no indicators that families have moved from Santa Rosa into other villages. For them as a people, as human beings, they would be much better off where they are going to.”
Janelle Chanona
“Would you hazard a guess at how soon will be “soon”?”
Lisa Shoman
“I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess, no. All I can say is what the O.A.S. has told us, which is “it will be in the shortest possible time” and to once again assure Belizeans that those people having moved, all of them having moved, no one will be allowed to re-settle in the area that was once known as Santa Rosa.”
At the height of its existence, Santa Rosa was home to approximately a hundred and forty people. According to Shoman, latest census reports prior to the first relocation were that only ninety-eight men, women and children, comprising sixteen families, were still living in the village.
